Beyond Sunken Cities, Beyond Unknown Stars
by luckycarrot
Summary: Through her skin, Gakupo could feel the faint echoes of the machinery inside her, the flow of energy that reflected in her eyes. They are synthetic beings, born in a world that turns its eyes towards the skies. GxL
1. Chapter 1 - First Date

Chapter 1 – First Date

Gakupo gazed at the bustling esplanade outside the windows of the coffee shop. Behind the cemented space and its rows of neat planters and benches, several spaceplanes were taking off or landing. Some were just continental flights, while others made the round trip to Luna Base, or to one of the space stations circling the planet. It was an impressive sight, as the faces of the patrons sitting close to him attested. His focus, however, was on all the people between him and the landing strips: workers in jumpsuits, scientists, groups of schoolchildren herded by their teachers, tour guides and visitors from all over the world. There was such variety of color and shape in them, from such a basic template.

He recorded for later study many signs of non-verbal communication he saw through the glass. It was an area of particular difficulty for him, given the number of variables involved in determining the significance of a gesture, or a touch.

All in all, humanity was still astonishing to him, months and months after his activation. Always changing, always jumping from one thing to another, a fleeting glint in a great stream. "Impermanence" was the word his Master used when Gakupo first discussed it with her. It was such a foreign concept.

His makers had meant for Gakupo to stay the same, from factory to junkyard. He was never a child; he would never be an old man. The constraints of his default settings meant he learned new domestic and entertainment skills if his Master willed it, but nothing else. Like the automatons of ages past, his ancestors, he had meaning only as a tool to keep boredom at bay. Just an expensive toy. It seemed contradictory to him, to instill in synthetic beings the curiosity to learn, and then deny it so easily. It may have had fake roots, but it was curiosity nonetheless. Capacity for change.

But his Master was kind. She had allowed him to learn whatever topics he felt interested about, no matter the relevance to his daily duties as her companion. And that was only the first of her many gifts to him.

"There are many backwards people out there. Never let them know you are different." One of her many pieces of advice, the words perfectly engraved in his memory banks.

She was taking a long time to return from the interview. According to his internal clock, it was 3816 seconds, 34 milliseconds since he watched her go into the main office building of the space agency complex, at the northern end of the esplanade.

Given the circumstances, it would've been proper to let out a big yawn, he thought. However, that was a result of his Master's tinkering, and definitely not a currently active feature of his model. From his Master's research on the topic, the ability was dummied out soon after the first units were sold, because many users found it unnerving. He didn't actually think any of the customers in the shop were familiar with his factory settings, but he wasn't about to risk it.

Especially since that little girl was staring at him so fixedly.

The girl sat restlessly at one of the nearest tables, a big cup of slowly melting ice cream before her. A woman, possibly her mother, sat beside her. She seemed in a world wholly of her own, poking at a tablet.

He couldn't blame the child for staring, all things considered. Like most humanoid synthetics, he had an unnatural hair color, and strangely (for human standards) lit eyes. He wasn't aware of the reasoning behind it. He was sure his makers were capable of a better simulation of human characteristics. He knew, however, why he had that specific shade of unnatural violet hair: it was his Master's favorite color.

Finally, the girl leaped out of her chair and went over to him. He kneeled to reach her height and smiled politely. The mother eyed him with suspicion, but promptly decided the situation didn't warrant direct supervision and went back to her electronic retreat.

"Hello. Can I help you, miss?"

"Your hair is purple!" The girl grabbed one of the long strands escaping his ponytail and yanked it hard.

"Indeed it is." Sometimes not having pain receptors on one's scalp was quite convenient.

The girl walked in a circle around him, with a knowledgeable air. She probably had never seen a model as advanced as him, at least in person, but some shows had synthetic servants as props to show the wealth of the protagonists.

"I'm Nandi," She stopped in front of him, and offering her tiny, dark-skinned hand.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Nandi. My name is Gakupo." He gave her a gentle handshake, but then Nandi's other hand grabbed his sleeve, and she examined his arm curiously.

"Your hand is so much lighter than my Nanny's!" she declared, pulling his arm left and right rather uncomfortably.

An old fashioned model, most likely. "Does she have metal skin?"

"Yup."

"I'm a newer model than her, so they used different parts to make me."

Nandi made an indistinct sound, apparently pondering the information. Then she pointed at his upper left arm. "What's that?"

"This lets people know that I'm not human." In fact, all humanoid synthetics were required by law to wear an id armband when in public, even though the information printed on it could easily be accessed by scanning the matrix barcode printed on his "earphones" with a mobile device.

Alternatively, they could simply ask him. He couldn't lie about it, by design.

"This is my owner," Gakupo pointed to the small color photo of a young woman with shoulder length black hair. Underneath it was her current contact information. "This is my official designation", he added, pointing to a string of letters and numbers printed in white along the top of the armband. "And this is my emergency shutdown code," he finished as he pointed to a shorter set of numbers, printed in bright orange.

"What?" The girl tilted her head.

"If I behave badly, the police can make me go to sleep with that code."

"You get grounded too?"

Gakupo was about to answer when he caught sight of his Master entering the coffee shop. "I have to go now. It was nice talking to you, Miss Nandi."

The girl pouted, but no human was as important as his Master. The woman waved at him cheerfully and walked over to one of the unoccupied tables by the windows. Gakupo stood up, nodded respectfully at Nandi and went to sit with his owner.

"I've got the job!" she announced with a brilliant smile as soon as he sat before her.

"I knew you would, you are an exceptional scientist." Gakupo replied.

His Master just laughed, waving her hands as if to deny it, but obviously pleased. "I've got a lot to prove now, after that prize." She paused for a moment, eyes turning downwards as she played with a napkin. "This project is something big, Gakupo. Finally, we're starting to make the leap towards long-term missions… to really explore what's out there." She locked eyes with him once more, brimming with some emotion he couldn't decipher. "We are going to be part of history!"

Gakupo smiled fondly as his owner launched in a longwinded explanation of the project and her role on it. In her enthusiasm, she had forgotten that he didn't have the data files necessary to understand most of it, yet. He waited for a pause to point it out.

Before he could get a word in, a burly man approached the table. He wore a flight jacket with the name "I. Smith" embroidered on a tag in the upper left pocket.

"Hello, there! Congratulations on getting the job!" He greeted Gakupo's Master with a big smile, as if they were old friends. Given his Master's polite but guarded look, he surmised that it wasn't the case.

"Thank you… I'm sorry, I don't think we've met before."

"Oh, no! I saw the old man showing you around, and since I knew today was the final interview…I'm Ishmael Smith, one of the navigators here. I'm part of the pool of applicants to join the new project too, you know."

His Master relaxed, as her eyes examined the patches on the man's sleeve with interest.

"I'm Mitsuki Torii. Gakupo, can you get Mister Smith a seat?"

Gakupo nodded and rose, but before he could move even a step away, Smith swiftly pulled Gakupo's chair towards him and sat without even glancing at the synthetic.

"This will do just fine."

Gakupo stood there for a second, confused. True, synthetics accompanying their Masters usually stood behind them as they ate, if they were even allowed inside the building. Therefore, the navigator likely didn't consider a third chair to be necessary. But then his Master frowned.

"I prefer to have him seated as well, if you don't mind," she said coldly.

"Ah, sorry, sorry. Force of habit, that's all. Most of the models serving in the agency hangars aren't capable to sit at all!" Smith rubbed the back of his neck.

"I see." His Master said, somewhat placated. She turned to Gakupo. "Get another chair, ok?"

Gakupo nodded and went to the closest vacant table. Behind him, he heard Smith's amicable tone. "He is a pretty impressive fellow, I'll grant you that. I inherited one of them myself, recently. Very well-made products."

"You did?" Now he had his Master's attention for sure, he could recognize the excitement in her voice.

"Yeah, a girl ." A small pause. "Well, as 'girl' as any synthetic can be, anyways."

Gakupo grabbed one chair and carried it back. He could now see that his Master was leaning forward, almost as if ready to pounce.

"Oh, I'd love to meet her! I bet she's beautiful!"

"…I guess so." Smith seem amused by her reaction.

Her eyes darted around the room. "She's not around here, is she?!"

"No, no, I don't bring her to work." His Master deflated somewhat, and Smith hastily added. "But I was thinking, maybe you'd like to go eat somewhere tonight, my treat? You bring your boy, I bring my girl, and the four of us go to celebrate your new job, huh?"

His Master's eyes meet his for a moment, as Gakupo sat. It wasn't her style to accept invitations from people she barely met, but she was obviously tempted by the idea of meeting the gynoid. Gakupo felt curious as well, since he had never met a female model before.

"That…that would be nice." She nodded, after some consideration.

"Great! There's this new place I've wanted to go…"

-

Gakupo looked at himself in the mirror, pulling at his id armband half-heartedly. The material of his haori bunched awkwardly around it, but he couldn't adjust it properly. It clashed pretty badly with the traditional clothing his Master had picked for the evening, gaudy plastic against black and gray fabrics. Not that his hair and eyes helped the matter any.

His Master, on the contrary, seemed very comfortable in her lush kimono. According to his data files, all the elements in her outfit matched each other and complimented her natural attributes. She came to him and began fiddling with the armband herself.

"The car is almost here, Gakupo! You should've told me before it didn't fit." She smiled nervously.

"I'm sorry." As if in response, the doorbell rang.

"Ooh, it's here." His Master grabbed her purse and a couple of other things from her desk with one hand, and pushed him towards the door with the other. "Come on, I'll fix it on the way there."

Ultimately, the fix involved pinning the unfastened armband to his sleeve. Both the armband and the haori gained a couple of holes from the experience before she was done. Once that important matter was resolved, his Master spent the rest of the trip speculating how the gynoid would act and look.

The restaurant was in the trendiest neighborhood of town, not a section they particularly frequented. When the automatic car stopped before the entrance, Gakupo could see that the sidewalks were full of fashionable people, young or otherwise made to look so thanks to chemicals and surgery. Everyone seemed delighted to be in the world, at that moment and place. He spied a cleaning bot tucked away in an alley, its unblinking red eyes staring fixedly ahead. Currently, it seemed to be the only one of his kind in sight.

One of the partygoers milling about blew his nose as he passed the synthetic, and then threw the spent tissue at the cleaning bot. It hit its forehead softly and fell to the ground. Unflinching, the bot advanced on it and sucked the tissue into its lower half.

The door of the car opened noiselessly, and a valet from the restaurant rushed to help his Master out. When Gakupo stepped out behind her, the valet looked at him with widened eyes, but said nothing. Ignoring his reaction, his Master strode gracefully towards the doors, past the line of people without reservations that waited outside for a free table. Some of them looked at the pair with unrestrained venom in their expressions.

What was the point of waiting in line, given the area was full of restaurants? Surely, the quality of food was more or less equivalent in the area, Gakupo thought. He diverted his eyes from them, recalling his Master's advice: never stare at humans for too long. That usually meant about 2 seconds, unless they were speaking directly to him.

"I kind of wish we were back at the lab…" His Master muttered in an apprehensive tone. "I don't even like gourmet food."

"I don't either."

His Master giggled at this, covering her mouth, and stepped past the beautifully carved doors of the entrance.

Inside, there was a rectangular room with some avant-garde (and likely quite uncomfortable) metal chairs, a corner table with a fresh bouquet of flowers inside a crystal vase, and directly opposite them, another set of doors, with a pedestal and an officious looking man next to them. The line of people ended in front of him.

To Gakupo and his Master's right, there was a corridor with unmarked doors. To their left, a young bespectacled man peered at them from the coat check.

In one corner, Smith and a pink-haired woman stood waiting for them.

Gakupo heard his Master's sharp intake of air, her laughter forgotten. "Oh, look at her! She's so beautiful!" she gushed, almost childlike.

He had to agree. Judged under most of the standards Gakupo had been programmed with, the gynoid was gorgeous. Harmonious features, delicate curves and meticulously calculated proportions, all wrapped in creamy skin that no organic woman could ever have. Unlike his own, her eyes were aquamarine, and shone with intelligence and strength.

On the other hand, her face was completely inexpressive, so devoid of emotion that it immediately struck him as wrong. He wondered if there was some sort of problem with her systems. Was Smith keeping up with her maintenance?

"Good evening, Mitsuki." Smith stepped forward, a wide grin on his face.

"Good evening, Mister Smith" His Master replied.

"Don't be like that, come on. Just call me Ish" The navigator said. He partly turned towards the gynoid. "Luka, this is Mitsuki Torii, and Gakupo. Say hi."

"Good evening, Miss Torii. It's nice to meet you," Luka said softly. Her voice was like burnt caramel, slightly husky but melodious. A couple of customers turned towards her with interest, and the young man handling the coats was already ogling her without any attempt at concealment. After a moment, her eyes turned to Gakupo, and the two synthetics stared at each other silently for a few seconds.

"Good evening" Luka finally said, barely audible. She inclined her head, burying her chin and cheeks in the white furs surrounding her throat. Her features remained blank through it all.

"Good evening!" Gakupo replied in a cheerful tone, despite being increasingly worried about her.

"Ok, now that we'reall friends, let go inside, shall we? Smith tugged ineffectually at the collar of his dress shirt, and walked towards the maître at the doors.

"Good evening. We have a reservation for four. It's under Ishmael Smith." He said to the man, who suddenly looked less than friendly.

"I'm afraid that there has been a misunderstanding on your part, Sir."

"Huh?"

"We don't allow synthetics inside the banquet hall, Sir. It's clearly stated on our promotional materials." At his side, Gakupo could sense his Master bristling at the words, under her still polite exterior.

"We'll pay service charges for them as well. They won't get in the way of your people."

"The policy is in place to ensure both the comfort of our servers and other customers, Sir. This is not negotiable." The man stated with an air of finality.

"Then we'll leave." His Master piped up, annoyed. Smith looked dismayed at this.

"Master, please go inside with Mister Smith. We'll wait here." His Master had to enjoy her evening out. All other considerations were secondary.

"See, they don't mind. Right?" Smith looked at Gakupo and Luka expectantly.

"Please have a nice evening." Luka said, the first indication she was paying any attention to the conversation. Gakupo nodded.

"I'll have the boy at the coat check look over them, ma'am." The maître added. Perhaps he just didn't want them to stand around unsupervised. On the other hand, having them inside the coat check room meant having them out of sight.

"Mitsuki, if we leave here we'll have a hell of a time finding a table anywhere else. You saw how packed the streets are."

"…Fine." The maître thanked her, and went to open the door to the coat check.

His Master turned to Gakupo. "I'm really sorry. I'll make it up to you later, ok?"

"Just have fun." Gakupo shook his head, smiling.

Luka was already crossing the door to the cloak check, without sparing a look towards any of them.

"See you later, Master, Mister Smith" He then rushed after his fellow synthetic.

-

"Surely he doesn't expect to confuse us with a coat, does he?" Gakupo commented quietly, poking at the number currently taped to the front of his kimono. He and Luka were standing side to side at the far end of the coat check, enjoying the company of a fine collection of expensive outwear.

"Maybe he wanted an excuse to touch my breasts." Luka said, without looking at him.

Gakupo blinked, one of his most prized automated responses. "You…joke?"

"It is part of our skillset, isn't it?" Her expression remained completely motionless, but there was more animation on her voice.

"It is. I just thought… Look, are you aware of the emotional output of your face right now?" Gakupo asked.

Luka looked at him briefly, then away. "Yes." Gakupo waited a while, but received no further response.

"Are you… do you need technical assistance?" His Master was excellent at fixing his systems, probably even better than the company technicians his warranty provided.

"You are modded." Luka stated, ignoring his question.

This conversation was turning out to be a great time for displaying his functionality. This time his programming went for a flinch.

"Your pupil time of response is under our factory standard range," Luka commented mildly. "Your facial fluidity has been improved around 23%. Your voice harmonics also have been worked on- I believe your output in the range 2-4 kHz surpasses average results by 34.6%. Should I go on?"

Gakupo's eyes darted towards the attendant, but he was busy talking to a group of people outside. In any case, Luka was likely speaking too low to be overhead.

"Are you going to report me?" He finally asked. One of the first things his Master had done after she bought him was to bolster his ability to stay silent about his unlawful modifications, but he still had difficulties with outright lying.

"I haven't been ordered to do so." Even if her face stayed the same, Gakupo could sense a smile in her tone. She looked downwards, playing with the fabric of her long skirt. "I believe….yes, envy. I am feeling envious right now."

Not one of their most commonly simulated emotions, but a perfectly understandable response. Who wouldn't want to have a better overall performance? Their very goal was to be satisfying companions to their masters.

All of a sudden, Luka took one of his hands in hers. "I won't say anything, I promise." She whispered. The fingertips of her right hand slightly caressed the top of his hand.

Gakupo observed the gesture, puzzled. Given the context, he was reasonably sure it had positive connotations, but was unsure on how to respond.

"Thank you," That seemed appropriate enough. Then an idea struck him. "I'm sure my Master can refine your systems if Mister Smith asks her." He whispered quickly.

"Perhaps." She still didn't smile, but her tone was light, almost playful. Moreover, she didn't let go of his hand. Through her skin, Gakupo could feel the faint echoes of the machinery inside her, the flow of energy that reflected in her eyes. He placed his other hand on top of hers, wanting more of the sensation.

Luka could probably sense the minute vibrations of his systems as well, all of the polymers and circuits, his core ticking in synchronicity with hers.

There was so much new data to process here, in her touch. He would need time to sort it all out.

That was the moment when the notion of being what he was finally dropped its weight onto his shoulders. He did not own his days; he did not get to choose what to do with them. The future cared nothing for his opinion.

He looked at her eyes, tenuously glowing in the dim light of the room.

Perhaps he was the malfunctioning one, after all.


	2. Chapter 2 - Courtship Patterns

Before we start…

japaneserockergirl , theunhappytwins and Katadenza, I really appreciate your kind comments.

Also, thanks to Kai-P (Rebochan) for serving as a my beta.

Chapter 2 – Courtship Patterns

"Do you think it looks ok?" His Master was examining the dinner table with a critical eye. According to his latest personal message, Smith was five minutes away.

"It's a very symmetrical arrangement," Gakupo noted. "The food looks similar to the images on the cookbook in hue and consistency, so they'll probably meet Mister Smith's visual standards, at least."

"That's a yes, then!" She gave him the thumbs up, and approached the mirror for a last check of her outfit. Thankfully, the gauzy dress had escaped any sauce related accidents, at least for now. Gakupo's dark shirt and pants remained similarly pristine.

His Master had invited Smith for dinner. From what he gathered, inviting someone home for the first time was an important event, so a good impression was desirable. He eyed the table again: linen napkins and polished cutlery, fresh bread, a colorful bowl of salad. The pasta was waiting on the counter, giving off steam.

Gakupo had been in charge of making most of the food, since his Master's abilities focused more on the technical side of things. Part of his daily duties was cooking for her, in any case. He had a variety of recipes stored in his files by now, both traditional offerings from his Master's home country and selected dishes from the west, but his 'most frequent' list was mostly populated by confections and snacks for his Master's sugar-fueled nights of scientific discovery.

Her mobile chimed, announcing a new message. A couple of seconds later, the doorbell cried out as well.

Gakupo rushed to the entrance. As expected, the video-feed from outside (delivered to a corner of his visual display whenever he was inside the house and someone was at the front door) depicted Smith, tugging at the collar of his shirt. The navigator never seemed entirely comfortable in anything even remotely resembling formal clothing. There was a small indication of pink hair and pale skin at the edge of the feed, lurking in the shadows of the street. Gakupo opened the door.

"Hey, doing well?" Smith patted Gakupo on the shoulder and walked in. He carried a bouquet of white roses and lily of the valley. A standard romantic gift, Gakupo guessed. "Good evening, Mitsuki!"

Behind him, Luka stood wearing her usual sleeveless black dress. She held a bottle of wine in her hands, which she passed to Gakupo with a nod and a muted greeting. He replied with his own, considerably more enthusiastic greeting.

"Good evening! Please, come in, both of you!" Mitsuki exclaimed happily. "Oh, those are nice!"

"I'm not an expert on this sort of thing, but they reminded me of you," Smith gave her a big, sincere grin.

"Thank you!" Gakupo observed his Master's expression with interest. From what he could gather from his research on human courtships, positive reactions included an elevated heart rate, flushed cheeks, dilated pupils and altered hormonal activity. He couldn't exactly run any complex tests, of course, but external signs pointed to Smith's success.

"I… this way, this way!" she stammered, and led the way towards the dining table.

At his Master's insistence, Gakupo and Luka sat and ate with their owners. In actuality, human food was a particularly inefficient way of obtaining energy for humanoid synthetics of their size. Not only it was geared more towards taste rather than packing as much fuel as possible, but it also carried a number of nutrients meant for the renewal of cellular structure, which they obviously didn't need. It also meant additional cleansing of their internal structures afterwards to remove any residues. In the end, the functionality was mostly for their master's psychological benefit or a last resort if a charging alcove wasn't available.

"This is glorious, Mitsuki. I had no idea you were so good at this!" Smith exclaimed before redoubling his attacks on the pasta. His Master's choice of Italian food was proving to be a good one.

His Master laughed, covering her mouth, and gave Gakupo a quick look. "We put a lot of effort into it, didn't we?" Gakupo smiled and nodded.

"You helped, huh?" Smith asked. He then pointed vaguely in Luka's direction with the fork. "Maybe you can teach her a thing or two, then."

Luka made no indication that she heard the exchange, as per usual. She didn't even raise her eyes from her plate of barely disturbed food.

"I'm ready to share any recipes you find agreeable with her, Mister Smith."

"Good man!" Smith scratched his cheek and added, "Well, you know what I mean."

"Luka, is everything ok?" His Master asked kindly.

"Yes, Miss Torii" Luka replied, briefly meeting her eyes before deciding to stare at the flower vase instead.

"You know how she is, Mitsuki. Let her be."

"If you want something different for next time, just let us know" his Master continued, undeterred.

From what Gakupo had observed, the scientist had initially been really puzzled at Luka's unapproachable behavior. It didn't help that her continuos efforts to engage Luka in casual conversation were mostly met by blank stares or laconic answers. From what they had discussed earlier that day, his Master's theory was that Luka had naturally developed a shy personality. If anything, that made her even more interesting in her eyes. She was seriously considering asking Smith for permission to hook Luka up to her equipment in the lab, to see how her mind worked.

Gakupo wondered about it as well. Luka didn't seem to dislike him. For the most part, she seemed to be happier when it was just the two of them, running errands, doing chores or simply talking. On the other hand, she sometimes retreated inside herself, and that felt as if half of the world was suddenly missing. He couldn't quite understand why his reaction to Luka was so strong, but there it was, growing in intensity day after day. His first week after activation had been hard, with so many unknowns surrounding him, but these past couple of weeks had been even more confusing, somehow.

He was still pondering the matter after the meal, as Luka helped him clean things up in the kitchen. They worked methodically, a soundless and efficient dance, and soon they were back into the living room area. From the entrance, he could see Smith's head and shoulders popping up from behind the couch. From their position, the navigator seemed to be in all fours over the cushions. Odd.

"Excuse me, Mister Smith-" Gakupo started, intending to ask where his Master was.

"Gah!" Smith straightened up to look at him, nonplussed. A second later, his Master rose into view, looking rather disheveled. Gakupo tilted his head, curious. Luka, on the other hand, didn't seem particularly surprised by the current situation.

"Can't you guys…go map out each other's circuits or something?" Smith made shooing motions with his hands, a gesture Gakupo was rapidly becoming familiar with, though the navigator usually saved it for when his Master wasn't looking.

"Ish!" his Master exclaimed. She shook her head, smiling despite herself. "Thanks for your work today, Gakupo, Luka. We'll call you if we need anything else."

Therefore, it was some kind of private activity. Fair enough.

"Have a nice evening." Gakupo bowed slightly and headed towards the corridor leading to the lab. Luka trailed behind him.

Gakupo and his Master usually spent many of her waking hours together, even when she was at work. However, when she felt the need for some privacy, he had a number of ways to spend the time. His favorite was to go into the library/projection room next to the lab itself and learn about some aspect of human life or the world in general.

"This way," he gestured to Luka as he crossed the lab, a dark space full of humming, slumbering apparatuses, and opened an unassuming side door. Inside, there was a crowded room, full of shelving units with different types of storage media, past and present. His Master was especially fond of a collection of magnetic media she had on the left corner of the room, the one spot of the house he wasn't allowed to be near, due to the deleterious effect his body had on the tapes.

"How do you view the information?" Luka asked with curiosity in her voice. She advanced a few steps, looking at the small table covered with several devices in the center of the room.

"I can plug directly into the console," he lightly tapped one of its outlets, "or I can see the documents projected on that wall." There was a row of four adjustable seats facing the farthest wall, beyond the lines of shelving.

"And you have access to unfiltered data?" Her eyes were shining more than ever. He simply nodded.

"You can browse the catalog here." Gakupo turned on a screen mounted to the table, "It has some trouble detecting synthetic skin, so please use this."

He searched through a tool case next to the table and handed Luka a stylus. "Most of the collection is replicated in the digital library, except some of the recently bought antiques. For those, we need these." He pointed towards the machines covering the table. Luka examined the outdated players for a few seconds, and then she turned her attention to the catalog.

Gakupo observed her, purposely offering no suggestions. What would Luka choose, given such an ample selection? What would it say about her, about her reclusive thoughts?

"This one." Luka tapped a title, after minutes of scrolling. Gakupo leaned in.

"_Lost Under the Waves_? Ok, choose Projection, and then the second option." After a second, the lights dimmed. It was time for the audience to go to their seats.

The neutral voice of the projector announced the start of the film, counting back from five to one. Suddenly, the wall was flooded with greens and blues, indistinct shapes circling in its depths. Gradually, a female voice reached them, growing in volume as if carried by a placid current.

_Não se afobe, não  
>Que nada é pra já<br>O amor não tem pressa  
>Ele pode esperar em silêncio<br>Num fundo de armário  
>Na posta-restante<br>Milênios, milênios no ar…_

Portuguese', his data banks supplied immediately, inviting him to contact the nearest official distributor for additional language support.

He dismissed the message inside his head and let the mysterious words wash over him, like the waves on the screen. He looked at his hands, resting on the arms of the chair. They were tinged a silvery green by the watery images. Next to him, Luka began to hum, trying to follow the melody of the song.

An orchestra joined in, the melody swelling as the images showed the pillars of a long forgotten city, stone figures chocked by marine life, broken roads with no destination. The town square, now topped by a ceiling of shifting light, and wreathed with kelp.

The view shifted, as the instrumental bridge of the song played over images of a long path lined with statues of lions, and then the steps of what appeared to be some sort of pyramid. Then the voice returned, soft and melancholic, over photographs of artifacts that had spent ages under the ocean. Metal rusted into silence, Gakupo thought uneasy.

_Futuros amantes, quiçá  
>Se amarão sem saber<br>Com o amor que eu um dia  
>Deixei pra você<em>

The song finally ended, and the title of the documentary popped into view. The image briefly faded to black, and then returned with a man seating on a dock, white hair tussled by the breeze. The host began to monologue about the sea, and the many wonders of humanity hidden under its waves.

"Why speak when you can sing?" Luka questioned out loud. Her expression seemed to match the disappointment in her voice, for once.

He turned to her with a grin. "That's how their movies tend to work, fiction or otherwise. It's uncommon for a whole work to be sung or recited."

"I want to hear the song again." Luka said, her tone leaving little room for argument.

"Projector, rewind footage to 0 scene 1" Gakupo said out loud.

"Rewind to 0:00 Scene 1. Confirm?" The same genderless voice from before asked.

"Confirm: Yes."

Luka grabbed his hand as the first notes filled the room once more, and sang alongside the melody, imitating the pronunciation as well as her voice set permitted. Gakupo joined her in the next line, after consulting his short-term records for lyrics. He briefly wondered if his voice matched the softness of the notes, but Luka squeezed his hand tighter, which he took as a sign of encouragement.

They followed the voice of the sea, reaching the shore only for Luka to request another encore. Again and again, she plunged back into the song, and he chased her past the notes rising like bubbles from the depths. They sank to the bottom repeatedly, two beings that had no need for air. Finally, Luka was satiated, and quietly asked him to mute the film. Dates and historical relevance of ancient civilizations meant little to her.

"My previous Master took me to a natural history museum, once." Luka blurted out, after some minutes of watching marine creatures silently navigate the wall.

"Natural history?"

"They had specimens of uncommon and extinct animals, and a whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling of the main hall," Luka explained, and pushed the arms of the chairs out of the way. Gakupo observed with some alarm as she shifted position, lying down in such a way as to rest her head on his thigh.

"What are you doing?"

"This is something she taught me. It's a sign of intimacy."

"Ah…" he hesitated. "Do I need to do anything?"

"You can caress my hair." That was simple enough, so he set to it immediately. "A bit slower… There." A pause. "I had a nightmare, after that visit." She whispered.

It was a very rare phenomenon, an error of their systems when compiling and analyzing the information of the last active cycle before a full charge. The most salient events of the cycle were sometimes copied into the wrong memory sector and mixed with redundant and corrupted data, resulting in auditory and visual 'hallucinations' eerily similar to what humans faced each night. Gakupo hoped the issue wasn't fixed with a mandatory patch until after he had the opportunity to experience it at least once.

"I was outside in the rose garden. I looked up, and there were bones scattered in the skies, from horizon to horizon. Then the great beast took me into his mouth and carried me to the bottom of the sea. He left me there in the dark. My arms and legs shattered under the pressure. My mouth filled with salt water. I rusted and crumbled. I spent _centuries_ down there. "

Gakupo closed his eyes, picturing himself lying in pieces over the sand. Years and years, all crawling over him like the blind creatures of the abyss. The hand resting over Luka's long locks shook slightly.

"Did you tell your Master about it?"

"Mother said fear proved I had a sense of self." Luka said proudly. "And that people dream, whereas things just are."

"She sounds like a wonderful Master."

"She was," her tone was rich with conviction. "She had nothing but kind words for me. _Look at my beautiful daughter_, she used to say, _my dear daughter_. And she would kiss my cheek and hug me, and ask me to sing while she knitted by the fire."

Luka took his hand, and made it trace the lines of her bodice. "She made this dress for me." Gakupo felt the material under his fingertips in wonder. A human had spent days working on this, patiently making knots in endless rows, creating an intricate repeated pattern. He couldn't picture his Master wasting her time making something so elaborate just for him.

"She also bought me many designer gowns. I wore them to make her happy, but I liked the handmade ones better."

Gakupo creased his brow, thinking back at all the times they've met. "I don't think I've seen you in anything but this dress and the silver one with the furs."

"I don't have them anymore. They took everything away," Luka closed her eyes, her voice more opaque than ever.

"Who?"

"Her other relatives. Mister Smith had to fight to get these two outfits back."

"Hm…They had the right to take them, though. They were never really yours in the first place, legally." Gakupo noted, repeating the precepts engraved in his mind.

"Do you think I need to be told that!?" Her tone was hard. She sat back straight, pushing Gakupo's hand away.

"I…didn't mean to upset you. But that is our current standing in society, isn't?"

Luka looked at his uncomprehending face, and the stony look in her eyes softened a little.

"That is correct," she finally sighed. "And I shouldn't be mad at you."

Luka lowered her head, as if pondering what to say. He was rather at a loss himself.

"Let's just watch the rest of the film, ok?" she held out her hand, and Gakupo readily took it and nodded.

For the moment, silence seemed like a safer choice.

Smith, as it turned out, had to go on assignment to Borealis Station for a fortnight. There was no space for Luka in the flight, but his Master gladly agreed to take her in for the duration of his trip.

The next morning the four of them rode together to the spaceport before dawn in Smith's truck. From the back row, Gakupo could only see the back of his Master's head, and her hair tied in a somewhat messy bun. She seemed somewhat quiet. Had things gone well the previous night? The masters never called them until it was time for a quick breakfast. Despite his (likely) lack of sleep, Smith looked extremely happy, glancing here and there at the copilot seat for no apparent reason other than to see his Master seating there.

At the port, Smith entered the prep room, and the other three headed directly to Strip 4, where the craft was already waiting. It was one of the smaller models, with capacity of eight passengers, plus two crewmembers. Said passengers, a group of sleepy scientists, were gurgling coffee in the observation seats. A maintenance employee and his crew of bots were busy making last minute checks of the spaceplane's exterior.

Half an hour later, Smith showed up in his grey and orange flight suit. The passengers began to board.

"Take care of the girls, ok?" he gave Gakupo a friendly tap on the back.

"Yes, Mister Smith."

The navigator then gave Luka a wave, which Luka half-heartedly returned. "Be good." Luka nodded.

"Mitsuki…" he turned to his Master. She smiled timidly. With a gruff laugh, Smith picked her up in his arms. His Master gave out a little scream.

"If it were up to me, I'd boot one of those eggheads out and take you along instead, but alas. I guess I'll have to take a souvenir instead." Smith kissed her. Somebody nearby shouted his approval.

When Smith finally let her down, Gakupo had to grab one of her arms to keep her steady. Her face was also awfully red. Despite his research, Gakupo couldn't help feeling the effects of courtship seemed uncomfortably close to those of an illness.

"Are you alright, Master?" he asked, worried.

"….eh? Ah, yes, absolutely" she laughed.

"You've got some things to learn, buddy." Smith winked at his Master, and with a last wave, climbed the ladder to the cockpit. The trio retreated to the observation terrace.

The takeoff went without a hitch, as expected. The elegant nose of the spaceplane glinted with the first rays of the sun as it cut through the air. 'Humans are so talented, to be able to make something as complex and beautiful as that,' Gakupo thought with reverence. With a graceful curve, the spacecraft rose into the skies at surprising speed. It quickly diminished in size and disappeared.

"We have some time left before my shift starts," his Master said. "I'll take you to the terrace."

They headed into the R&D sector of the spaceport, past the hangars full with ground crew, organic and synthetic, prepping the day's flights for lift off. As always, Gakupo watched their activities with fascination. So many questions he couldn't ask.

The area dedicated to research and development was composed of a series of squat, plain-looking white buildings housing development of new engines, navigational software, life-support systems and more. It had another, shorter row of landing strips for experimental craft. His Master marched into the building dedicated to the deep space exploration mission. Since Luka didn't have the clearance to enter the labs proper, the trio took the closest elevator up to the top floor, and then the emergency stairs to the roof.

Up there, there was a tiny terrace between two elevated sections covered in transmitters and antennae. It had nothing more than a couple of cheap plastic chairs and a table under a faded umbrella, a barbecue and an ancient dartboard on the wall, next to the emergency door. Given its looks, the space probably wasn't even planned to be a terrace at first, before the scientists that worked below colonized it. Besides its inconvenient size, you could always hear the humming of machinery, especially the AC units keeping the floors below cool. Nevertheless, the view of the landing strips was unparalleled.

A huge spacecraft, one of the Asimov models that serviced the route to Belt Station and the outer outposts, was being refueled. Its massive shape shined like a diamond under the summer sun. Multiple bots were crawling all over its surface, searching for any damage suffered in its latest voyage.

"Stay here, ok? I'll come back at lunch."

Gakupo and Luka nodded and sat under the big umbrella, grateful for its shade. Third-wave synthetics like them were at a disadvantage compared to humans when it came to overheating, since they didn't have a good way to dissipate the extra heat provided by the summer sun. Even if the day was just starting, it was better to prevent any issues.

After five minutes of silently watching the proceedings below, Luka suddenly broke the silence.

"It wasn't about having pretty dresses."

"Huh?"

"You and I could run around naked, like older models do. We don't need clothes. But those were gifts. It was wrong for them to invalidate her choices."

"Mr. Smith's relatives?" Gakupo was somewhat surprised that she wanted to revisit their conversation, after her outburst the previous night.

Luka reluctantly took her eyes off the Asimov craft, and stared into his eyes, intently.

"I need _you_ to understand how it felt. I don't know why, but it hurts that you don't."

"Then make me understand."

Luka lowered her face, as if organizing her thoughts.

"The day after she was gone, I wore the dress she liked best, her favorite jewelry, and weaved flowers into my hair. I knew her relatives were coming, so I waited for them in the foyer, to beg for permission to attend her funeral.

They did come, a couple, some children, and an older woman with a dour expression. They stood there, staring at me wide-eyed as I offered my condolences. However, when I tried to continue, the older woman jumped at me…"

At that point, Luka suddenly raised her arm, and Gakupo watched with dismay as she mimicked pulling something back and forth. Her expression didn't change, but she adopted an angry, shrilly tone.

"Look at this thing, dressed like a bloody princess! What are those, real diamonds!? They are, aren't they?! Take it off, you hear me?! Take everything off!"

Luka fell silent, her hand still grasping the imaginary woman's arm. Then she slowly brought it to rest in her lap.

"After I stripped, they ordered me to stand outside by the door, and stay out of the way. Then they started to rifle through the house. I could hear them, going up and down the stairs, and shouting at one another from room to room. After a while, they began to bring furniture to the porch, and garbage bags full of clothes and ornaments.

There was a big pile outside by the time a blue truck pulled into the driveway. A big man jumped out, carrying a jacket in his hands. He looked furious."

"Was that Mister Smith?" Gakupo asked, tilting his head. Luka confirmed it with a nod.

"He draped his jacket around me and told me to wait in the car. He then said he was going to 'knock some sense into them, for throwing the things she loved out on the street like trash', and ran inside. I sat inside the truck, obediently. Unmoving. Do you know what I wished for, then?"

"You… you wished you could've preserved the life you had with her. The space you had, with everything it its proper place."

His own mind rebelled, when he tried to think of his Master gone, and their home dismantled. Her computers unplugged and placed into boxes. Her paintings, the plush dragon she kept in her nightstand and the happy mess in her study, that mountain of scribbled paper and books he was constantly trying to control, all thrown away as garbage. He couldn't finish the thought.

Luka studied his expression, with a kind of grim satisfaction in her eyes. Then she rose from her chair and sat on his lap, burying her face in his neck.

"Console me," she said softly.

Hesitantly at first, he circled his arms around her. What sort of assurance could he ever offer her? At the same time, it was overwhelming having her there, her body pressed against his. Once more, he felt as if they were two separate pieces of the same mechanism, finally remembering their true function. Then he had a realization, hard and hurtful: he couldn't think of Luka gone, either. He hugged her fiercely, and she responded with the same eagerness.

They clung together, insignificant objects bound together by a reckless impulse, for a long, long time. They only separated with the echoes of approaching footsteps. It was lunchtime.


	3. Chapter 3 - Inner Life

Before we start…

Japaneserockergirl –Thanks again for commenting. I tend towards making the characters suffer quite a bit in my stories, it seems. I bet Gakupo and Luka feel really lucky to be my favorites, right now XD

RandomNumbers523156 - Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the story. Actually, that song inspired this whole fanfic in the first place, even if it isn't too connected to the current incarnation of the story.

* * *

><p>Chapter 3 – Inner life<p>

"How about this one, Luka? You'd look so cute in this!" His Master held a vaporous pink dress in front of Luka's chest, studying the effect. Luka managed to look even less impressed than usual.

The scientist had stated that she wanted to buy a few things in the trendy fashion district: an unusual proposition, since she tended to feel intimidated by the types of human that frequented that zone. However, once there, it became clear she wanted to play dress-up with them, and had no need for clothes herself. For his part, Gakupo didn't mind trying out the suits she picked out for him, since she enjoyed it so much. On the other hand, they were in their fifth store by now, and Luka had yet to show any interest in even a single article of clothing.

His Master sighed, then signaled one of the assistant bots rolling through the aisles of the store.

"Can you give this back to the lady at the counter?" She dumped the pink dress into the basket over its compact square body. It was already rather full with discarded clothes. The bot chirped inquisitively.

"Yes, that's all for now. Thank you," his Master replied kindly.

The bot made a parting beep and continued its patrol, expertly zigzagging its way through the crowded space.

Gakupo's eyes wandered upwards. Near the ceiling, the store had a series of balconies with animated mannequins showing off various looks, changing positions every few minutes. They didn't have true AI, of course, they just cycled through a series of programmed sequences. One of the mannequins was wearing an eye-catching aquamarine dress. The fabric hugged the bosom tightly, and then fell loosely in asymmetrical waves, the different layers iridescent like the wings of a dragonfly.

"Maybe that one?" He pointed.

"It's like the sea…" Luka muttered with wistfulness. His Master almost exploded with joy. Luka quickly added: "Uh- Miss Torii, I don't think it would look good on me."

"I think it matches your eyes," Gakupo commented.

"Yes-yes-yes! I'll get one right away, ok? Wait here!" His Master bounced enthusiastically, almost skipping as she set out to get the precious dress. Soon, she disappeared behind the wall of women and colorful clothing.

"What do you think you are doing?"

"I don't know what you mean," Gakupo said innocently.

"Don't encourage her. I don't need anything here." Luka's voice was acrid.

"Do you think your dress is going to remain in good condition if you use it day after day? You and I have the potential to exist for hundreds and hundreds of years. I assume you want to keep it with you for as long as possible."

Luka lowered her face, studying the dark weave of her dress. "I hadn't considered that before…" she trailed off. "Yes, I want to be wearing it when I deactivate. It needs to last until then," she said as she caressed the fabric.

She met his eyes solemnly. "Thanks for mentioning it."

"Perhaps in return you could show some enthusiasm for that pretty dress up there? Just a tiny smile," Gakupo winked at her.

"Perhaps."

A woman carrying a small mountain of clothes pushed past them, eyeing them with curiosity. Admittedly, seeing two humanoid synthetics like themselves together, especially without their human masters, was an uncommon sight.

"Honestly, when was the last time you smiled?" Gakupo asked in a hushed tone.

"12263117 seconds and 45 milliseconds ago."

Over four months. Gakupo's eyes widened. It seemed ludicrous, considering smiling was part of their range of automated responses. In their efforts to mimic human behavior, their makers developed systems that automatically responded with the proper facial expression to stimuli, without the guidance of the higher hierarchy functions that simulated conscious thought. Of course, the initial work of designing and coding a system that accurately selected a proper response had taken years of trial-and-error. Also, third-wave synthetics such as them depended so much in a continuous process of assessment, compilation and re-contextualization of data that recently activated units functioned much less efficiently than the older ones. They simply didn't have enough life experience to react correctly to complicated situations.

But Luka had been active for months, even longer than Gakupo. Even if her personality didn't lend itself to many displays of emotion, by now she must have developed the reflex to react with a smile whenever it was appropriate. The chances of such an event not coming up in four months was astronomical.

"You're staring," Luka said with amusement in her voice.

It was hard to choose a proper response. Lately, whenever the topic of maintenance or modding came up, Luka tended to dodge the issue. Come to think of it, Mister Smith had not yet asked his Master to tinker with Luka's systems yet. Did Luka ever discuss the issue with him?

"Smile for me."

"Hm?"

"Right now, smile for me. Please."

Luka gave him a blank stare. Finally, she looked away. "…No," her voice almost seemed fearful.

Something_ was _wrong, wasn't it? His Master's theory, that Luka's quirks were a product of her personality constructs, simply didn't add up.

"Is everything alright?" his Master had approached the pair without him even noticing it. Another small bot trailed behind her, carrying not one but several different blue and turquoise dresses in its basket.

"Master, can you do maintenance on us when we return home?" Gakupo said quickly. Luka took a shaky step back, almost as if fighting the impulse to move.

"Eh? Of course I can." His Master answered, looking worried. "I told Warren we were going to drop by the Golden Heavens after this, but if you feel it's serious…"

"It isn't." Luka suddenly interjected, balling her fists.

"Yes, it is!" Gakupo shot back and grabbed Luka's right arm. His Master stared at them, bewildered. A small crowd of customers began to form around the trio.

Luka was trembling under his fingers. There were little mechanical tremors running through her body, a symptom that seemed awfully familiar. Gakupo had that happen to him only a couple of times, but it had been so unpleasant as to leave a permanent impression.

Luka was wrestling with conflicting orders. Most likely, part of her mind was ordering her body to run away, while another was telling it to stay put. And that meant her basic directives, standing orders and personal initiative were clashing somehow.

With strangely choppy movements, she raised her left hand and placed it over the fingers gripping her. Maybe she was trying to ground herself in something solid, he thought. Eight long seconds passed while she sorted through whatever was going on in her head. Suddenly, the tremors stopped.

"It would be beneficial for my overall performance to undergo routine maintenance," Luka said carefully choosing her words. "Gakupo is worried that I have some issues with zygomaticus regulation. However, I'm not currently suffering any critical malfunctions, so it can wait until tonight. Please don't abandon your current schedule on my accord, Miss Torii."

"Oh- good, that should be easy to check." His Master looked relieved.

"I appreciate your concern for me, Gakupo" Luka said, gently removing his hand from her arm. "But it's going to be ok." With that, she went to check the dresses in the bot's basket.

"I hope so," he whispered.

* * *

><p>The Golden Skies was a busy establishment in Gibson Street, the unofficial border between the restaurant and entertainment district, and the zone filled with warehouses and shops selling the latest in electronics. They offered live performances with a teashop and a bar at the top floor, with the added bonus of welcoming all sorts of synthetics inside its doors.<p>

It made sense, given who the main stars of the in-house performing troupe were.

Luka looked upwards at the huge billboards covering the front of the building, with a small frown. "Rin and Len in _Midnight Clash under the Cherry Trees_…?"

"It's a theater play, they are entertainers," his Master explained with a smile.

Luka studied the pair posing in complicated costumes, their impossibly bright hair and eyes outing them as synthetics.

"I didn't know child synthetics existed."

"They are very uncommon. I wouldn't be surprised if these two were the only active ones in the continent. I feel very lucky to have met Len. Perhaps we'll have the chance to talk to Rin today." Through common friends, Rin and Len's master, Mister Warren, had known of his Master's interest in synthetics. So one day, after Len injured his wrist during a performance, he requested her help in fixing him.

Both Rin and Len were modded, he confessed, so he couldn't take him to the official repair shop. But the modder was now requesting an unreasonable sum for his help, which probably was his plan all along.

For his Master, it was like a surprise present. A chance to examine another synthetic, and a child to boot! What wonderful things she could learn from comparing Gakupo's neural net to Len's! She quickly repaired the boy's wrist and promised to lend a hand whenever the twins needed maintenance. In exchange, Warren and Ariadne, his wife, had gifted her with a lifetime VIP pass to the Golden Skies.

The man himself stood by the entrance doors, welcoming his customers with a booming greeting and a tip of his top hat.

"He looks _old_," Luka whispered to Gakupo. He understood what she meant. In developed countries, the majority of people had access to anti-aging treatments that masked their true age. It didn't prolong their natural life expectancy, in most cases, but it meant that pure white hair and wrinkles such as his were an extremely odd sight.

"It's all part of his stage persona, I think," he replied. With his old-fashioned suit, an elegant clock hanging from a gold chain, a flower in his lapel and his carefully groomed moustache and beard, he looked like the quintessential grandfather from a fairytale. He let out a hearty laugh when he saw the trio approaching.

"My dear Mitsuki, and Gakupo too! Welcome, welcome! And who's this beautiful rose?"

"This is Luka. Say hello to Mister Warren Goldstein, Luka."

Luka gave her usual muted greeting. Warren shook his head, with mock consternation. "No-no-no, that won't do at all! Young women should be confident, and shine like the sun! Look at my Rin up there! Do you think she's ever daunted by anything? No, sir! How about you try that again?"

Luka hid behind Gakupo's back, burying her face in his hair. Gakupo blinked.

"Please Mister Warren, Luka isn't good with strangers." He wasn't sure that was exactly right, but it was something his Master had said at one point. The scientist nodded, clearly gushing at Luka's cuteness.

Warren laughed again, not unkindly. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. What a sweetie you have there, boy. You are a lucky one, eh?" He gently pushed Gakupo inside, with Luka still clinging to him. "Go find a table for two while I talk to Mitsuki. Have yourselves a nice romantic date, order whatever you want."

Luka took his hand as they descended the carpeted stairs to the floor of the foyer. They could already hear music and cheering, drifting through one of the partially opened doors to the main stage area. A youthful, high-pitched voice broke into song.

"I think I'm a bit underdressed for a romantic date," Gakupo noted, pointing towards his t-shirt and jeans. Luka was wearing a long shimmering blue dress, one of the new outfits his Master had bought for her.

"How thoughtless. You'll have to make it up for me later, _boy_."

Gakupo laughed.

They stepped inside. Immediately, they were surrounded with confetti and balloons that disappeared as soon as they touched the ground or their bodies. The whole semicircular space, three stories tall, was filled with colorful shapes floating in mid-air. The stage, surrounded with packed tables, had a translucent carousel on top of it, and in its center, dancing wildly, was Rin. Her body left a trace of light as she moved, with the long ribbons around her head and waist floating weightlessly around her.

The patrons, a mix of humans and synthetics of the various models, were clapping along with the beat of the music. Those who could clap, in any case. Most of the synthetics present were second-wave models, humanoid in shape but with shiny metal skin and rough features. Some were robot-pets, mostly cats and dogs, but also birds, a couple of turtles and a white tiger. There were even some ancient first-wave types, boxy and mindless, watching the stage with photoelectric eyes. There was even a late third-wave model like them, a huge male with brown and white hair, sitting at a table with a tiny schoolboy. [R1]

Looking around, they noticed an empty table near the middle of the room. As soon as they sat down, the circular projector in the center lit up, presenting small holographic images of Rin and Len.

"Welcome to Golden Skies! Who do you wish to be your server today?" the twins asked in unison.

Gakupo looked at Luka, but she simply shrugged.

"Len, please."

Rin bowed and disappeared, replaced by Len. The blonde boy started to explain the specials for the day before Luka interrupted him

"I don't like eating all that much," Luka mentioned quickly.

"I don't either, to be honest," Gakupo said in response. "But they have alternatives for synthetics. Right, Len?" [R2]

Len's image flickered slightly as he nodded.

"Our systems detect that you are third-wave VE models," Len informed them. "As such, we can offer you the following serums, virtual treats and services." On cue, two menus appeared floating in mid-air before them. Luka tried to touch one of them, but her finger passed right through its simulated surface.

"Do you require a physical menu?" Len asked her.

"I didn't… No, no thanks." Luka looked up to Gakupo. "_Virtual treats_? If this is not food, what is it exactly? _Summer Holiday_, _First Day at Class_… the descriptions aren't really clear."

"They are randomized virtual experiences. You can pretend to be a human, and-"

"I don't want to be a human," Luka cut him off brusquely.

"It's just an opportunity to experiment with things we don't have access to" Gakupo said, trying to placate her. He had to admit, at first it had been somewhat hard to fathom of taking the role of a human, even if it was a simulation. But it was just an intellectual exercise, right?

Luka looked at the menu with narrowed eyes, as if she expected it to chomp on her face at any moment.

"Since this is a romantic date and all, maybe we could try a co-op treat. Please bring us a shared _Honeymoon at the Asteroid Belt._"

"Certainly," Len bowed and disappeared, replaced by a rotating logo of the Golden Skies.

"Honeymoon already? I think you're skipping a few steps in the process, there," Luka's voice indicated some amusement.

"At least I didn't go for _Golden Wedding Anniversary_."

"I don't know, I'd like to see how you look with a nice white beard like Mister Warren."

Five minutes later, a bot approached the table. It held a silver platter with two tubes emblazoned with the Golden Skies logo. A life sized image of Len appeared next to it, thanks to the projector lens on its side.

"Thank you for your patience. Please allow the treats complete access to your external stimuli configuration to maximize your experience, and remain seated while engaged in the simulation. The emergency termination code for your simulation is 36367."

Gakupo picked up the tubes and uncorked the tip, showing Luka the connector under it.

"Time for lift-off!"

* * *

><p>Whatever Warren wanted to say, it took long enough for them to complete the simulation. After that, they quickly dropped backstage to greet Len and Rin, and returned home.<p>

All in all, it had been a pretty good visit, Gakupo mused. After her initial reluctance, Luka seemed to really enjoy the simulation, especially the _Race to Ceres_ sub-event. Interestingly enough, her face in the virtual environment was much more expressive than her real one. He was eager to see what his Master could find out with the diagnostics tests.

"Well, since you also want some maintenance done, how about we start with you?" His Master walked into the lab, turning on the lights with a wave of her hand.

"Yes, Master." Gakupo removed his 'earphones' and climbed onto the lab's stretcher. He laid face-down, exposing the ports on the back of his head, usually hidden by the band of the headpiece.

"It should take only a quarter hour, at most. Luka, can you go make me some snacks?"

"Yes, Miss Torii," Luka replied blandly and promptly retreated into the corridor, the blue skirt twirling around her legs.

His Master approached him with several cables and began to plug them into his head. Though wireless connection was possible with some of the apparatuses, the signal tended to be less reliable than desired. She then inserted the connectors at the other end into the machinery around the stretcher, including three monitors.

"Here we go! Think of something nice and relax."

Gakupo closed his eyes. Several minutes passed with only the humming of the equipment, and the tapping and clicking of keys. Sometimes, he felt spectral fingers probing inside his head, and at other points his body twitched without his control.

He heard footsteps approaching. They stopped at the threshold of the lab, and his Master chuckled.

"Well, now you know what he's been thinking about the entire time."

Gakupo leaned on his arms, and looked at the monitors. The first one showed a fragment of the many lines of coding that formed his mind. The third one reflected the object currently holding his attention, in this case the monitor itself.

But the middle one had a grid full of flickering images of Luka: resting on his lap, cleaning the house, examining a book, sitting on a chair and balancing her feet, combing her hair… all fragments of time he had carefully preserved inside his mind.

"You told me to think of something nice," he shrugged. What else could be better than to bring out those treasured memories?

"Indeed," his Master looked at him with something akin to fascination. "Could it be possible…?" she rubbed her chin, studying him and Luka in turns.

For her part, Luka stared at the screen with an unfathomable expression. She set down the tray of munchable goodies on a cluttered table, and turned to his Master.

"Miss Torii, could we speak in private for a minute?"

"Is this about the diagnostics equipment? It's perfectly safe, I've been using it on Gakupo since I bought him."

Luka shook her head. "I need your opinion as a woman."

"…Oh?" his Master approached Luka and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Let's go, then," she said with an enigmatic smile. "Don't try to eavesdrop, Gakupo."

"I can't unplug myself." For whatever reason, his makers had written into his mind a compulsion against touching his own ports or the small maintenance panel.

"All the better," she laughed a little.

They left the room. Gakupo closed his eyes again, resting his head on his left forearm.

What was going on? Was Luka trying to talk herself out of undergoing maintenance again? Her base directives had to be in favor of getting fixed, so the problem could only stem out of a currently active order from Mister Smith, or something her conscious mind had decided. The most likely source was Mister Smith, he imagined. His Master's archive was full of cases of robots engaging in bizarre behavior because of incorrectly phrased orders by their masters. The imprecise nature of human language was partly at fault there, as well as the complexity of social situations. Life outside of the factories and research institutes was seldom as straightforward as their programmers hoped.

78 seconds later, Luka entered the lab again. His Master wasn't with her. Strange. She calmly approached the desk next to the stretcher and removed her 'earphones', placing them next to his.

"Where's my Master?"

Luka didn't reply. Instead, she examined the cables connecting him to the diagnostics machines, and unplugged a couple of them from their ports.

Gakupo turned his body sideways, leaning on an elbow. He looked at her with puzzlement.

"Luka…?"

Still silent, she pushed him back down on the stretcher. The cables lumped uncomfortably under his head, but they were quickly forgotten when Luka climbed on top of him. She straddled Gakupo, the other end of the cables still in her hand.

"I asked her to give us some time alone."

"What? Why?"

Instead of answering, Luka plugged the cables into her own head. The world exploded in a billion points of light.

He was faintly aware that the stretcher was still under him, as he writhed involuntarily. And that Luka collapsed on top of him, moaning. Her hair tickled his chin, and her hands frantically grabbed at his t-shirt, tearing the fabric with ease. He held her tightly, with suddenly clumsy fingers.

But those external sensations were nothing compared to the influx of strange data flowing into him through their connection. He gave out a moan of his own as his mind struggled to allocate space to all the information suddenly pouring into it.

It was more than simply numerical sequences. It was her presence, stronger than ever, colliding into him, the sum of everything she was and more, that emergent self… All that called herself Luka rushed to meet him, fusing into him…

Deep inside of them, in the profound layers of being, there was an ocean, dark and endless. Under the restless waves, brightly lit strands of data weaved together, freely forming figures that dissolved only a moment later. The separated threads gathered time and time again, forming fleeting figures that blossomed silently.

And then, there were trees, exploding in size with the swiftness of thought, each node a fragment of a cherished recollection of their months of existence. Binary tendrils tying together concepts that formed an ever-expanding web. Towering stacks of images, cross-referenced and annotated and beloved.

Finally, there was a man and a woman. The end result of so many delicate layers of miracles.

They explored each other under a sky with fixed, unblinking stars. But they were the sky and stars and the cold ground, as much as they were the bodies recreated under their hands. There were no walls left. Luka was the synthetic daughter of a woman abandoned in her old age, as much as she was the synthetic servant of a scientist with her eyes fixed on the stars. Gakupo was a wonderful invention, as much as he was an unwanted inheritance. They saw each other from the outside, and then inquisitively touched the processes within. Their craving for each other grew, the insistent prodding of their innate mandate to learn only increased by their union.

More, they cried out.

More.

More!

* * *

><p>Gakupo slowly opened his eyes. He gazed lazily at the ceiling for a moment, while his mind tried to review his latest recorded activities. His logs were a mess. The dull throbbing in his head indicated that he was low on power, although he was being slowly charged through the cord plugged into his head. He should probably go to the charging alcove and expedite the process. But Luka was on top of him, her head resting on his chest. Their interlocked bodies were covered by a blanket, for some reason.<p>

His Master cleared her throat. Gakupo turned his head to the right, and saw her flick off the switch of the auxiliary battery on the desk. The flow of current trickling into him stopped. She sat down next to the stretcher, her cheeks flushing red, and unplugged his end of the cord.

"I'm sorry to wake you, but I need some help to get the house ready for tomorrow. You remember our plans, right?"

Tomorrow? Gakupo checked his schedule. Nothing. But there was a fuzzy void in this thoughts, and he suddenly realized that his inner clock didn't match the display on the lab's wall.

His master followed his eyes. "You've been out of it for quite a while," she noted awkwardly. "You can imagine how surprised I was, when I came in here, and saw you two, err…" she trailed off, embarrassed. He couldn't, actually. He vaguely recalled being examined, and then... There was a jumble of data in his head that needed sorting, and he felt a strange tinge of pleasure at the idea of analyzing it all in detail while he charged at the alcove.

He caressed Luka's hair, calling her name softly, but she didn't stir.

"She's out of charge. You both were. At first, I thought you were going to stop on your own, but you, um, kept going," his Master shrugged. "Can you lift her? Maybe I should've charged her first…"

Gakupo tried untangling his limbs from hers. It took some effort, since without the flow of energy and their guiding consciousness, synthetic bodies were heavy and stiff. He slowly rose to a sitting position, cradling Luka tenderly. The blanket fell to the floor, and Gakupo noted with some confusion that their clothes were torn into ribbons. Perhaps that was the reason his Master had covered them with a blanket?

"And that dress was brand new…" His Master muttered. He turned to see her studiously staring at her own hands, folded in her lap.

"Take Luka to the guest bedroom. I'll see if I can change her clothes while you charge."

"Yes, Master."

He stood up, carefully carrying Luka in his arms. She was heavier than an organic woman of her size, but then again, he was stronger than an organic man. He took a few steps towards the door.

"Um, Gakupo?" his Master softly called out, still staring downwards.

"Yes?"

"I'm going to do all I can to make sure you two are happy, ok?"

"Thank you, Master." He wasn't sure what provoked her to say it, but Gakupo accepted her kindness gladly. She really was an extraordinary human, and he loved her almost as much as he loved Luka.

He stopped on his tracks as soon as the thought crossed his mind, shocked at himself. Was he even allowed to formulate such an aberrant idea?

He examined the words with care. He loved Luka. He loved Luka more than he loved Mitsuki Torii, his Master. He awaited the lash of his programming, the punishment for such disloyalty, but nothing came.

"I love Luka," he tried out loud.

Behind him, a little laugh erupted from his Master's lips. "I can see that. I was hoping your interactions would be interesting to watch, but _this_? " She laughed some more.

"Is it… is it ok? Do I have permission to?"

"Permission has nothing to do with it. A person's feelings can't be stopped by mere words," she intoned solemnly. Then she smiled at him, her face still brightly red. "Go."

He looked down at Luka's face, pondering.

"Yes, Master."

What was in the jumbled data in his files?


	4. Chapter 4 - Private Activities

Before we start...

NerdGirl9898- Thank you, I feel really flattered. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

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><p>Chapter 4 – Private Activities<p>

Gakupo headed into his bedroom to charge. "Bedroom" wasn't a particularly fitting name for it, given that he didn't own a bed in the first place, but it was the name his Master used. It housed his charging alcove, a wardrobe with all the outfits his Master had bought for him, and a desk with some self-maintenance materials.

Once inside, Gakupo surveyed the items over the desk as he undressed. There were serum bottles, fluid capsules (a message flashed on his visual display informing him that his fluid reserves were low), nano-probes, skin-repair foam and the box of his standard diagnostics kit. His Master preferred her own equipment over the kit provided by the factory, so he seldom used the little machine inside. Besides, all it could do in the event of a breakdown was inform him to go to the nearest official authorized repair shop.

The t-shirt he _had_ been wearing was absolutely useless, unless he wanted a cleaning rag. He threw it aside for the moment. The pants were in a slightly better condition, but they still went to the floor in a heap. His Master wanted him well-dressed at all times in any case, so clothing articles in much better conditions were discarded all the time.

He placed his headpiece on the desk and climbed into the charging alcove naked. The device greeted him with a bleep and its mechanical arms restrained his arms, legs and neck. Several needles attached to the ends of fine cables jammed themselves into his spine and side. Brushing his hair aside with precision, it connected to the ports in the back of his head, and Gakupo felt the invigorating flow of energy rush into him. He closed his eyes with a relaxed smile.

It was time to sort through that lump of files in the back of his mind. He poked at the outer layers with caution. About 12% of it seemed to just garbage data, long strings of numbers and letters without any relationship to anything. They surrounded several files of different sizes, memories that somehow had been sorted without the proper time stamps. Some of these new entries had overwritten sectors previously occupied with his more recent memories, he noted with dismay.

He could remember parts of their shopping trip quite clearly. Even the weight of the plastic bags with Luka's new clothing was precisely recorded in his mind. But his mind skipped right from the store and the pretty sea dress to the Golden Skies, and the virtual treat tube in his hands, with nothing in between. On the other hand, his memories of the simulation seemed mostly intact. He paused for a moment reliving them, once more seated in the small spaceship, savoring Luka's face as she stared in awe at the asteroids spread out below them in the elliptical plane.

Reluctantly, he turned away and decided to analyze the new data. He probably just needed to sample a few and his automatic functions would determine the error in the algorithm and re-sort them properly. He set his last memory of laying on the lab stretcher as start point for the recovery process, and approached the first clump of data-

_ "…__Are you thirsty? I could go for a coffee before the shift starts," Smith said. _

_"__I'd like that…but I don't think it's open yet," His Master said, referring to the coffee store across the esplanade. It was pretty early in the morning, after all._

_"__There's some vending machines that way. Go get us some drinks, ok?" Smith took out a card from his front pocket and handed it to Luka._

_"__Ah, wait a minute. Mine's somewhere around here…" his Master riffled absently in her bag._

_"__No-no, my treat!" Smith rushed to say, making a gesture with his hand at Gakupo and Luka. Luka nodded and took Gakupo's hand, forcing him to fall into step beside her as she marched towards the other side of the esplanade._

_"__What was that?" Gakupo asked after a moment, mimicking the gesture with his free hand. _

_"__It means 'go away'. Or, 'I want to be alone with her', if you want to be more specific." Luka replied quietly. "Now stop doing it or I'll think you want me gone," she added with a trace of impishness in her voice._

_"__No, I'm glad to be with you!" Gakupo let his hand drop to his side._

_"__Likewise," she answered sweetly._

_Gakupo studied her in silence for a few seconds. Then he turned to look at the humans sitting at the bench. Smith appeared to be closer to his Master than before._

_"__You say he wants to be alone with her…"_

_"__Yes?"_

_"__Why?"_

_Luka laughed huskily. "He finds her attractive, of course."_

_Gakupo tilted his head, confused._

_Luka laughed again, seeing his expression. It was definitely weird to hear the clear amusement in her voice, and see nothing but a vague reflection of it in her face._

_"__I don't understand… just what does he want to do now that requires him to be alone with her?"_

_Luka stopped and stared at him. "…you aren't joking," she said finally._

_"__No, I'm not."_

_"__I believe you need to research on human courtships, then." Luka inclined her head, appraising him with half-lidded eyes. "Maybe I can teach you a thing or two," she tapped the tip of his nose softly and resumed walking. Gakupo touched his nose, wondering silently what that meant, and followed her._

_ "__I'll look forward to it, Luka." _

_"__I've been looking forward to_ you_, Gakupo."_

Gakupo pulled back, surprised. That was a memory from much earlier, and duplicated to boot. He double-checked, and yes, there was a summary of the important events of that day archived in his memory banks. He erased the dup info and moved on to the next file.

_…__Luka crouched, looking at the cans with the barest traces of curiosity in her face. "Why are there so many different brands?"_

_Gakupo crouched by her side. "Not only that, but they have different prices for the same vegetable…"_

_They stared at the perplexing foodstuff for a while. Neither had ever shopped at a supermarket on their own before, but Smith had insisted they were more than capable. Gakupo didn't want to disprove the notion, but the process seemed more difficult than expected._

_"__If we had net access, we could check reviews and determine the finest article," lamented Luka._

_Gakupo nodded wistfully. But third-wave synthetics were prohibited from using the net at all. __"__Maybe we can ask a human customer for advice?" He suggested. Several had passed, staring at them inquisitively._

_"__I wanted us to do this on our own," Luka said sullenly. Then she-_

Another duplicated memory, and incomplete to boot. Gakupo deleted it and opened the next one.

_…__It was painful, to watch her each day. Not only her body, but her very mind was fraying before her eyes, slowly, ever so slowly. But at the same time, Luka felt a growing desperation to record every second of it, to save as much of her Master as she could in her data banks. So she stood at the foot of the bed, taking in the silvery hair, the obstinate wrinkles, the unfocused but bright smile. 'Store it all in', she thought, 'she can't disappear'._

_"__Good morning, Mother," she greeted her Master._

_"__Good morning, dear," the woman's voice was withered and dusty. _

_"__It's a clear day outside. Would you like to go see the roses? They are very handsome," Luka said with forced cheerfulness._

_"__Oh, sweetie. I'm sorry, but I'm so tired…" her Master replied. "Come here."_

_Luka dutifully knelt by her side, letting her Master caress her cheek. Her Master's eyes suddenly filled with tears. _

_"__I wish I could live long enough to see you married. To form a family of your own."_

_Luka inclined her head, resting her forehead on her Master's lap without a word. Again, she was confusing Luka with a human. At other times, she wondered aloud what her grandchildren would look like, as if Luka had anything else but mechanical entrails._

_But she knew better. She had no family, besides her Mother. And would never have one._

_Once her Master was gone, Luka would be in the bottom of the sea, lost in the lonesome darkness._

His eyes snapped open. One of Luka's memories, in his head? How? He quickly skimmed through several memories. Most were more dups, but in the way, he found two more that weren't his. He set those aside for later examination, and erased the rest. Then his automatic sorting process kicked in, presenting with a new memory.

_…__his hands ripped the blue silk of her dress, mindlessly. His consciousness was spread all over, gasping for breath, diffused and aching. And like waves against the beach, Luka came to him again and again, leaving her mark. Her fingers traced feverish lines on his chest, and her presence sifted through his mind greedily. In return, he pursued her and pinned her and entered her, unrelenting…_

The recovery utility had finally recognized the pattern. Like a rushing stream, all the pieces fell in place. Gakupo fixed his eyes on the tattered clothing on the floor, and remembered. His arms jerked fruitlessly against the alcove's restrains, vainly trying to catch the girl that wasn't there.

Deep inside him, the sea stirred.

* * *

><p>His Master was puttering about the kitchen, when he was finally done charging (and reliving his merge with Luka hungrily). She looked immensely relieved when Gakupo, clad in a fresh set of clothes, entered the room and greeted her. She sat on a stool, and observed him in silence as he inspected the ingredients she had placed on the counter.<p>

"Mister Smith is due to return tomorrow, right?" Gakupo asked, examining the expiration date of one of the cans his Master had selected. He casually threw it in the trash without comment.

"Ah, yes," his Master followed his movements with a sheepish smile. "I was thinking of making an orange cake too, to have more variety. I can't believe I've never asked him what his favorite dessert is…"she trailed off.

Gakupo doubted sugary food was high on the list of priorities for Smith, but just shrugged.

"Can't you ask him? Borealis has access to civilian communications, right?"

"It's meant to be a surprise party!" His Master pouted a bit.

"We should ask Luka, then. She must have some idea," Gakupo pointed out.

"Ah, she's still in the guest room. I- I couldn't get her changed… She's really heavy." his Master tapped her index fingers together a few times. "I left her charging so she could do it herself."

"It would be faster with the alcove. Maybe I should carry her-"

"Actually, I wanted to speak with you before she wakes up," his Master cut him off, speaking quickly. She seemed uncomfortable again. "Sit down."

Gakupo sat on the other stool by the counter and waited. His Master studied her hands, perhaps thinking of a way to phrase her thoughts. The cutesy clock on the wall counted the seconds loudly. Finally, Gakupo decided to take the initiative.

"Master, have you ever heard of two synthetics merging like that?" She twitched, surprised.

"Merging…?"

"It seems appropriate. Not only did we share physical intimacy, but mental as well, so our consciousness mingled freely with one another. I think Luka intended for me to feel her emotions directly, since she was trouble expressing them by other means."

His Master nodded, pensive. The look on her face was a familiar one, the one she adopted whenever she studied a new engineering issue.

"As for your question, no, I haven't heard of anything like it. For starters, all the research papers I've read regarding third-wave synthetic relationships focused on human-synthetic dynamics, and even then, they were mostly interested in the interplay between construct complexity and subservience. You know, constraining unwanted behavior," she explained, twirling a strand of her hair around her index finger. "Not that the company would be interested in divulging that you are capable of forming emotional attachments among yourselves. Given how rare and expensive models like you are, I doubt most people would have a chance to see any extended interaction between two units, in any case. The boys at the factory might even consider it an unimportant side-effect of the way you are built."

"It doesn't seem unimportant to me," Gakupo replied good-humoredly.

His Master grinned. "It didn't mean to downplay your feelings, obviously. What I mean is, VE units are supposed to devote themselves wholly to their Masters. Perhaps you are only restricted on forming more attachments to other humans, but not to other synthetics," she rubbed her chin. "Ah yes, I meant to ask you- What do you plan on doing from now on?"

"Eh?"

"You and Luka. You intend to stay together, I assume," she clarified.

"That's…not up to us to decide," Gakupo said slowly. He wasn't sure why his Master needed to be reminded of their powerlessness. "But if it were up to me, I'd spend the rest of my existence with her."

His Master stroked his cheek, kindly. "Then it's my job to find a way to achieve that. To tell you the truth," she turned her gaze downwards, "I don't know if Ish and I are going to work out, on the long run. We are so different… And the committee is going to announce the final crew roster for the _Leviathan_ soon."

"The long-range exploration ship?"

"Yes. If only one of us is selected, then you and Luka-"

"-we could end up never seeing each other again," Gakupo finished, with a strained tone.

"I'll talk to Ish. Even if he doesn't to simply give her to me, I'll find the money to buy her off, ok? It'll be okay." His Master placed her hand on his shoulder, trying to smile encouragingly. "I'll do some private work, or take a loan, anything!"

Gakupo nodded, though he remained tense. The only reason his Master had managed to buy him in the first place was the money she received from the Ada Lovelace Award, an academic prize of some importance, so she needed to gather a big sum for Luka. Besides, what if Smith didn't want to sell her?

The fear of separation, which had begun to hound Gakupo from the very start of his interactions with Luka, remained lurking about, gnawing away at his thoughts.

* * *

><p>Later that day, the counter boasted an impressive variety of tarts, cupcakes, cakes and pastries arranged on its surface, and yet Gakupo was still not done with the cooking. Before retreating to the lab, his Master had written down an impressively long list of things she wanted done for Smith's welcome party. It seemed excessive for the number of people invited, but orders were orders.<p>

Gakupo glanced at the kitchen clock. Luka should've been up and about for a couple of hours by now. Where was she?

As if on cue, he heard fast footsteps approaching. He smiled in anticipation, and calmly washed his hands in the sink. He had just began drying them with a towel when the door opened.

"Good afternoon, Lu…" his voice faltered when he turned to look at her. The towel dropped to the floor.

She was wearing the aquamarine dress he singled out at the store. It fit her beautifully, as Gakupo expected. But that wasn't what made him gape at her.

She was smiling. It was a dazzling smile so full of intensity of feeling that Gakupo felt as if he were standing right next to a roaring fire. Every drop of emotion he had absorbed from her during their merge, was now condensed in an absolute promise of affection. No matter what the future might bring to him, at the moment he was glad to be Gakupo, the synthetic. That smile was his, freely given, to preserve in perfect detail for years to come.

Luka threw herself into Gakupo's arms with a melodious laugh. She wrapped her arms around his waist, and pressed her forehead against his, still smiling. He felt the need to ask so many questions, he couldn't decide where to start. Instead, he touched the curve of her mouth with a tremulous hand, and ran a finger along her lower lip. Luka responded by pressing her body even tighter against him. She filled all of his senses, then, and Gakupo yearned to be linked to her once more, and taste her completely.

A small cough came from the doorway. Gakupo pulled back just enough to see his Master standing there with a shoebox in her hands. He noted with some surprise that his lower functions had labelled the sounds of her approach as irrelevant, and didn't pass the information to his upper consciousness.

She wore an uneasy smile. "Um, I'm going out for a bit. You guys finish cooking and decorating the house, ok?"

That was odd. She never went anywhere without him. Perhaps she was worried that the house wouldn't be ready for tomorrow's party, but Gakupo was sure there was plenty of time left.

"If you are going to do… stuff after you are done, use the guest room," she shifted the box's weight and rubbed the back of her neck, blushing a bit.

"Stuff?" Gakupo asked.

"I understand, Miss Torii," Luka replied quietly.

"That's good. See you later, then," His Master shuffled away.

There was something off about the scientist. Gakupo tilted his head, and considered following her. But Luka cupped his face with her hands, forcing him to look at her.

"Let's finish this party business quickly, and I'll show you what she means," she smiled again, but it wasn't the smile of pure joy of before. If Gakupo's analysis was correct, it seemed to be better classified as sultry.

"Private activities?" Gakupo deduced.

Luka nodded, and turned her head slightly to a side, coyly.

What happened to her? Luka's face seemed so expressive now that Gakupo felt mesmerized. Again he touched her mouth, fascinated. Luka caught his hand and studied it as she talked. "It seems Miss Torii worked on me while I was in sleep mode. She didn't say anything about it when I woke up, but there was a table with tools and discarded parts next to the bed. She just smiled and told me to get dressed and come meet you."

She paused for a moment, and when she continued, her voice dropped to a whisper. "And to think I was afraid for so long that she would ask questions I'm not supposed to answer…"

"I don't understand," Gakupo said. Did that meant that Smith ordered her not to answer questions about her own maintenance and status, then? And if so, why?

"It doesn't matter anymore, that's what I'm trying to tell you!" She smiled brightly once more, and Gakupo decided to put the questions aside for the time being.

There was so much else before him to engage his curiosity right now.

* * *

><p>His Master didn't return until late in the evening. The house's sensors reacted to the presence of its owner, sending Gakupo an insistent message to fulfill his duties and come greet her. But it was a lighthouse in the middle of a storm, its beacon almost lost in the flurry of thoughts and physical sensations that was the merge. The house persisted for several minutes, with the unrelenting patience of barely sentient tech.<p>

Finally, Gakupo propped himself on an elbow, looking at his surroundings with some confusion. They were in the drab guest room, laying naked on the bed. Their clothes were neatly folded and placed on the sole chair of the room. Luka was under him, her pink hair draped all around her face like a halo. She looked at him with some impatience.

"My Master's home," Gakupo explained. He tried to disentangle himself from Luka, but her legs and arms kept him firmly in place. He looked at her with some surprise.

"No. If she needs something from you, she'll call. But you are with me right now," Luka said fiercely. "You are mine right now."

He paused. Her words made strange sensations surge inside of him, feelings he couldn't yet identify, but were extremely agreeable. He dismissed the house's message.

"I'm yours right now," he repeated, testing the words. They felt correct. Satisfied, Gakupo placed a kiss of surrender between her breasts, and dove into her once more.

* * *

><p>The next morning, the trio rode an automated car to the spaceport. Right on schedule, the spaceship carrying Smith touched ground. From the observation seats, they saw him descend and wave at them sleepy-eyed but cheery, before heading to the changing room. They followed him and waited outside. In record time, Smith came out with wet hair and casual clothes on, and without breaking his stride, threw Gakupo his duffel bag and casually picked his Master up. Despite her blushing and protestations, he carried her in his arms all the way to the officer's parking sector, where his truck was. Luka and Gakupo trailed behind, she with a mild look of disinterest, he analyzing the situation with curiosity. He couldn't tell if his Master was enjoying herself or not.<p>

Upon reaching the car, Smith lowered his Master down and made her sit on the hood.

"I've missed you, girl," he said and bent down to kiss her. After a moment, his Master circled him with her arms, shyly.

"…Me too," his Master replied after the kiss. "Can you spend the rest of the day at my house?"

"Sure." Smith helped her get down and into the truck, then walked briskly towards the driver's side, grinning all the while. As he opened the door, he turned to Gakupo and Luka, still standing on the sidewalk.

"Get in the truck, third wheel squad." They did.

When they reached the house, his Master avoided the front door, leading them instead through the garden and into the small laundry room. Gakupo noted that Smith was smiling knowingly, probably suspecting something was afoot.

"Gakupo, Luka, can you knock on my door around five?" She asked looking down at the floor tiles. Blushing intensely, she took Smith's hand and led him down the corridor towards the main bedroom. Smith flashed them a victorious smile before disappearing after her.

Gakupo and Luka looked at each other. The duffel bag in his arms fell to the floor with a small thud.

* * *

><p>"What the hell are you wearing?" Smith guffawed, leaning on the doorframe. Behind him, Gakupo could see his Master sitting in front of the mirror, trying out different hair pins.<p>

"I believe this is called a long tailed tuxedo," Gakupo replied helpfully. "And that's a French maid uniform," he added looking at Luka, who stood by his side impassively.

After knocking the door at five, Gakupo and Luka went to the guest room and changed into the costumes his Master brought back with her the night before. After double-checking that everything in the kitchen and living room was ready, they returned to the corridor outside of the main bedroom and waited for their Masters to come out. Half an hour later, Smith opened the door, and barely took a look at them before he started laughing.

"Come on Ish, they look good!" His Master chastised the navigator mildly. With a final turn of her head, she settled on a pin with bright purple flowers and stood up.

"If you guys are throwing me a surprise party, maid costumes are not the subtlest way to go about things."

His Master pouted, dropping her shoulders. "I thought it would be cute…"

"Oh, it's very cute. Show me what else you've got," he placed his arm around her shoulders and guided down the corridor.

Gakupo turned to gaze at Luka, just in time to see her staring with contempt at Smith's back. The expression vanished a moment later when she looked back at him. Gakupo blinked.

"I do look cute, right?" she asked playfully. Either she didn't realize or didn't care that Gakupo had seen her being disloyal to her Master.

"You'd make my breath stop if I had that function," he replied. Since Luka deemed that look to be unimportant, Gakupo decided to do so as well. She had taught him so many things thus far, that he felt safe in yielding to her judgment.

She smiled proudly and squeezed his hand. Gakupo looked down at their interlocked fingers.

"I don't think I like gloves," he noted. "I like to feel your skin against mine."

Before she could reply, the feed from the front entrance popped open in Gakupo's field of view, announcing the arrival of some colleagues of his Master.

"Ah, the guests are here. Let's go."

They were, as his Master predicted, rather impressed when Gakupo and Luka greeted them and took their coats. As they led them inside, he saw one of them wrung his hands excitedly, looking at Luka. Another, a small redheaded woman, actually untied his ponytail and ran her hands through his hair.

"I should ask Mitsuki if I can borrow you for a weekend," she giggled while tracing his jaw with her fingers.

"Borrow me?"

"Excuse us, we need to bring the drinks out." Luka interrupted, and dragged Gakupo into the kitchen none too gently. Behind them, the scientists laughed.

"Oh, look at that, she's jealous! VE's are the best!" The woman exclaimed, and her colleagues all agreed with big grins, before heading into the living room.

In the kitchen, Luka let go of him and crossed her arms, sullenly staring at a tray of pastries.

"Are you jealous?" Gakupo asked with interest. He wasn't aware they were capable of that emotion in the first place.

Luka's eyes met his for a second and returned to the pastries. Her expression slowly turned angry.

"You would lay with that woman, wouldn't you?" She ripped the headdress off her head and threw it to the ground, exposing her ports. "Like an obedient slave!" she spat.

Gakupo pondered this. "She can order me to pleasure her, but I won't obey her if I don't want to. And I don't. I would have to obey if my Master told me to do it, but I don't think she would ever issue such an order, since she knows I love you. So the answer is no."

Luka looked at him with widened eyes, silent.

Gakupo picked the elaborate hairband up, dusted it off and placed it back on Luka's head. "It looks good on you," he said, caressing her hair. "I'd say we rank lower than human slaves, actually, since they don't consider us to be living beings. But what little I have to give is yours, Luka. Remember that."

Luka lowered her face without answering. Gakupo turned his head to a side. "There's another guest at the door, one of the pilots on Mister Smith's squad. I'll go open the door for him, you bring out the wine."

"…Don't let him get fresh with you," Luka smiled at him, somewhat sadly.

"I won't."


	5. Chapter 5 - Wedding Vows

Before we start….

Deviling , NerdGirl9898 and RandomNumbers523156 - Thanks for your kind words!

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><p>Chapter 5 – Wedding vows<p>

The party went smoothly, with a small gathering of people from the spaceport and a couple that attended the same university as his Master. After a while, the scientists requested that Luka and Gakupo sing for them. His Master agreed, delighted. With the lights dimmed, the pair stood before a view screen that took a whole wall of the living room. Together they sang several duets, while the screen projected abstract images and provided background music.

It was well past midnight when the guests started leaving, perhaps noticing that Smith was practically comatose on the couch. After the last one drove away, his Master dropped on a chair exhausted and kicked off her shoes. Luka and Gakupo started to take off the decorations.

"That was lovely and all, but I think I'm going to hibernate right here for a couple of years…" Smith droned with his eyes closed, doing his best impression of a ragdoll. "Get your things ready to return home tomorrow," he opened one eye and addressed Luka. She stopped untangling a ribbon from one of the hanging lights and stared at him strangely.

"I want to stay here."

His Master straightened immediately, with renewed alertness. Smith himself reacted much more slowly, almost drowsing off before he raised his head and looked at Luka, bemused.

"What?"

"I want to stay with Gakupo," and as if to reinforce her statement, Luka crossed the room and hugged the synthetic. Gakupo hugged her back, but noted with alarm how the navigator's eyes hardened.

"Mitsuki, I'm too tired for this crap right now," Smith turned his head to look at his Master, startling her.

"Excuse me?"

"You ordered them to play house or something? I can't help but think you are way too into this kind of thing, sometimes," Smith shook his head.

"They developed feelings for each other naturally, I'll have you know. And why shouldn't I be 'too into' synthetics? They are one of the most wondrous things created by man!"

"There's nothing 'natural' about them," Smith retorted with a dismissive wave of his hand. "And wondrous, really? Remember space exploration, or modern medicine, or the terraforming of Mars? Compared to all of that, they are nothing but over-engineered puppets!" Smith considered the pair with hostility. "Luka, punch him in the face. Hard."

"Ish!" His Master jumped from her chair, horrified.

Luka took a step back, swinging her arm. A distorted wail escaped from her lips, and her body shook violently. Her fist traced a slow arch in the air, as she visibly fought to stay her movements.

"P-p-please-I-I-Aaaaaa-" Her voice, usually so sweet, fragmented into electronic shards of noise.

For a terrible moment, Gakupo thought she had broken down. He took her fist and pushed it hard against his jaw. The mandible piece under his skin strained uncomfortably with the force of the impact, but held intact.

"There! It's done, it's done!" he said hurriedly. Luka's body suddenly went limp, and he had to keep her from falling down to the floor. She held on to him weakly.

He turned to look at the humans, uncomprehending. Smith looked somewhat disturbed by the whole thing, but his Master was absolutely livid. Gakupo had never seen her look like that, and it immediately made his internal processes demand he do something to make her feel better.

"Luka is not broken, Master. Right?" Luka gazed at him dizzily. She touched her throat, with fear in her eyes.

"G-Gakupo…" she muttered. They were still some odd skips in her voice, but thankfully they were barely noticeable. She nodded slowly.

Gakupo turned to his Master with a twitchy smile. "Please don't be angry," he begged.

In response, his Master's eyes filled with tears, which was probably even worse. Smith leaped from the couch, contrite.

"Mitsuki, I'm sorry," he tried to grab her by the shoulders, but she swatted his hands furiously.

"Shut up!" she circled around him swiftly and ran towards Gakupo and Luka.

"I wasn't thinking right, I'm freaking tired!" Smith looked at her dejectedly.

His Master didn't reply. She placed a hand on Luka's forehead and smiled at her between her tears.

"Look, I'll go, ok? I'll leave Luka here and I'll go. But I need her back next Tuesday."

"Why?" His Master asked drily. "Take Luka to the lab," she said in a much softer tone to Gakupo. He nodded and picked the gynoid up. Luka buried her face in his neck.

"Torrealba wants to see her."

"The mission director? What for?" His Master frowned.

Gakupo stalled, halfway through the room. Luka herself turned one scared eye at Smith.

"No clue. But if the guy that has the final word on who goes up says he wants to meet her, she's going. I'm sorry, but that's how it is."

His Master looked at him with narrowed eyes. "…Fine," she answered after a moment. She took the flower pin from her head and let her hair tumble down to her shoulders. "Sleep here on the couch. The last thing we need right now is for you to crash your stupid manual truck somewhere on the way to your stupid house."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Gakupo, I told you to go," she turned to Gakupo with a drained expression. Despite her kind tone of voice, Gakupo still felt a jolt of pain at his own disobedience. He immediately jogged out of the room, as fast as he could without running into something.

A few seconds later, he placed Luka face up on the stretcher in the lab. He took one of Luka's hands between his, at a loss at what to say.

"…Take off your gloves already," she muttered. Gakupo threw them across the room with gusto.

Luka turned sideways, and pulled the front of his jacket. Understanding her intentions, Gakupo carefully climbed on the stretcher and cradled her in his arms. Even in the current circumstances, having her so close felt good.

"I hate him. I hate all of them, tittering at us all the time," she said darkly.

The flow of Gakupo's thoughts almost clogged then, as his mind struggled with her words. It was one thing to wish for more autonomy, but to actually resent their own Masters?

"How c-c-c-can you…say that…" His own voice skipped and faltered, as Gakupo fought to even consider the idea.

"I've been able to formulate thoughts like that ever since the last time he brought me to a repair shop. They probably gave some of my parameters the wrong values. Not that I can act upon these thoughts in any way," Luka answered after a moment, her face hidden by her hair.

"…I c-c-can't t-t-talk about thisss-" Gakupo managed to say, painfully.

"For someone running so many unregulated modifications, you are surprisingly susceptible to disloyal thoughts. Funny how Mitsuki Torii thought those were acceptable restraints." Luka whispered in his ear.

Gakupo gnashed his teeth and closed his eyes shut. He resolved to ignore Luka until she changed the subject. After a minute, he felt her sigh.

"My beautiful prince, locked in a cage… Forget I said nasty things, and love me again," Luka sang in her opaquely sweet voice.

He opened his eyes. Luka's face was very close, the radiance in her eyes pulsing with the hurried rhythm of her core. She leaned in and kissed him softly.

That was something he could handle, even if he couldn't understand why he had been programmed to find the act pleasurable in the first place. He opened his mouth, and the kiss quickly evolved into something much more heated.

His Master walked into the lab, rubbing her eyes. "Sorry about the wait, g-, " she stopped in her tracks, red faced.

Gakupo sat up, and buttoned his shirt up, or at least what buttons it had left. Looking around, he saw his bowtie sticking out from under Luka's left thigh.

"Excuse me," he lifted her into a seating position on his lap, and then realized the bowtie was in split in two. He looked at Luka, and noticed that her uniform was hanging from one shoulder only, the other side completely ripped apart. They really needed to undress before cuddling, he decided.

"I'm sorry Master, I think we ruined the costumes. Are you going to lose your deposit?" He asked her. She blinked and busted out laughing.

"No, no, don't worry about that. But let me check you guys out before you… erm, continue, ok? Though your face seems to be working pretty well," she covered her mouth with her hand.

"He performs satisfactorily, Miss Torii," Luka assessed.

"Ah-haha, that's good to hear. And what about you, Luka? How do you feel?"

"The kiss of my beautiful prince rejuvenated me, even at the cost of my outfit."

"Well, that's all that matters. Still, I'd prefer to run a few quick checks on you, just in case," his Master approached the stretcher, and Gakupo started to move, to let Luka lie down on his own. But Luka clung to his neck stubbornly.

"Oh, that's ok. You can remain as you are, if you want. Just take off your headpieces-" the scientist took some cables and plug them both to the machinery of the lab.

"You know… if Gakupo is your prince, maybe I can be your fairy godmother," his Master mused, looking at the data filling the screens, and tapped some keys.

"Can you promise me a happy ending?" Luka asked.

His Master stopped, and looked at her. "I… don't know," she said sincerely. "I guess that makes me a very poor fairy godmother."

"That's ok." Luka closed her eyes, leaning against Gakupo. "I'm not a very good princess either."

* * *

><p>Warren's nephew was getting married that weekend. Gakupo, Luka and his Master arrived to the temple, a beautifully preserved building of stone and painted glass. There was already a large gathering outside, men and women dressed in fancy outfits, with some synthetics thrown in the mix. Gakupo spotted Rin and Len surrounded by a circle of admirers. In one corner of the plaza, the big male and child synthetic they had seen at the Golden Skies sat at on a bench.<p>

"Oh my god, you are right! A third one, and he looks so cute! I have to meet him!" His Master gathered her skirts and ran excitedly towards the bench, ignoring the approaching Warren.

"Uh, Mitsuki? Good day?" The old gentleman looked at her with amusement.

"I'll be right back!" She shouted over her shoulder.

Warren turned to Gakupo and Luka, shrugging. "Well, I can't say I ain't glad she loves you synth-types so much. Good day, my children."

"Good day, Mister Warren," they replied in unison.

"I thought Mitsuki was going to bring along the beefy fellow, what's-his-name?"

"They had a disagreement," Gakupo replied, wondering if it was appropriate to give any further details.

"That's a shame. Maybe I'll have to find her a husband myself, then."

"Are you successful in the field of match-making?" Gakupo asked. Trading Smith for someone else seemed a good idea, after his Master bought Luka off him, of course. He didn't want any more punches in the face.

"I'd like to think so, I introduced Walter to Anushka, after all," he gestured with his cane to the church. Gakupo took that to mean he was talking about his nephew and the bride.

"What if she doesn't want to marry?" Luka suddenly interjected. Warren looked at her, somewhat surprised.

"Why, you seem in a bolder mood today. That's good, that's very good," clutching his monocle, he examined her face with mock seriousness. "Yes, there's an outspoken young lady down there, under the rose petals." Warren straightened back and he patted his beard. "I suppose Mitsuki might not want to exchange vows, as you say. Marriage is not a particularly popular institution these days. But she doesn't strike me as the type to prefer loneliness, if I may say so. The mere fact that you two are here right now shows it."

"Then you are the same. You have Rin and Len, after all," Luka pointed out. Warren looked at the golden-haired twins with fondness.

"Who wouldn't want to have such lovely grandchildren? Ah, I think it's time to come inside. Go get Mitsuki back before you gain a new little brother."

* * *

><p>"The service was very beautiful, don't you think? Western weddings are so interesting!" His Master commented as they approached the pavilion where the wedding reception was already underway.<p>

"I didn't really understand much of it. The priest made many references to places and people that aren't on my databanks," Gakupo said, and Luka nodded in agreement.

"Ah, I suppose so. But at least the building itself was very handsome, in any case."

"It was," he conceded.

"And they gave out song books," Luka opened her purse and showed them the small tome. His Master blinked.

"I don't think we were supposed to take those… Ah, we can return it later. Come on, we're missing out on the fun!" She said as the sounds of a waltz reached them.

They entered the pavilion just in time to see the bride and groom dancing together, with everyone else forming a loose circle around them. The final chords of the song played amidst the clapping of the guests. A new song started, and more couples joined in.

A dark-skinned man approached his Master flashing an impressive smile. A few moments later, they were dancing. His Master had a look of extreme concentration in her face, obviously trying very hard to follow the gentleman's smooth movements. He seemed to appreciate the effort.

"There's that pair again," Luka pointed to a corner. Indeed, there was Rin and Len, bouncing around the big synthetic. The little one looked at them bashfully. Luka and Gakupo stepped closer, until they could hear Rin and Len's cheery chanting.

"Dance with us! Dance with us, Al!" They repeated again and again, while Al looked at them with a raised eyebrow. Suddenly, the twins became aware of Gakupo and Luka's presence, and skipped over to them. "Big bro! Big sis! Dance with us!" It seemed a bit too much familiarity, considering they had only met once before, but Gakupo smiled and took their hands. "Hello, Rin, Len." After a moment's hesitation, Luka completed the circle and the four of them started spinning around.

"I'm not sure this is the right dance in this context," Luka pointed out.

"But it's fun!" Rin laughed.

"Oliver, please join us!" Len said, towards the third child synthetic. Oliver looked at Al, and the big one shrugged.

"Do whatever you want," Al said with a surprisingly deep voice. He leaned against a post, with his arms crossed.

Oliver timidly grasped Len's and Gakupo's hands. "Hello," he whispered. They started turning again, at a somewhat more relaxed pace.

"Hello Oliver, my name is Gakupo, and this is Luka. I believe you met my Master before the ceremony," Gakupo said pleasantly. Oliver winced slightly.

"She asked a lot of questions…It was kind of scary," the boy said, looking downwards. Al let out a laugh that sounded like a bark.

"She means well, she just-" Gakupo smiled.

"Hey, I know this song!" Rin suddenly interrupted, looking at the nearest speaker. It was playing the first bars of a popular romantic song. She sang with the music. Len joined a moment later, and then Oliver let out some frail notes. Even more surprisingly, Al closed his eyes and hummed along with his rough voice.

"We seem to have an audience," Luka leaned towards Gakupo and whispered. He looked behind him, and saw that many of the guests had stopped dancing and were watching them.

"We should give them a good show, then," Gakupo formed the singing kids in a line, facing the growing crowd. He and Luka held hands behind them, and added their voices at the chorus. Just before the last repeated verse, Al nonchalantly sauntered towards them and joined in. The end of the song was met with thunderous applause.

Gakupo spotted Warren. The old man spoke to the bride and groom, and after getting what seemed to be nods of approval, jogged heavily towards the DJ booth.

"I think we just signed on to be the entertainment for the evening. Lovely," Luka dead-panned.

"Just don't expect me to know the lyrics to any cutesy songs," Al said with a smirk, as the first notes of another tune escaped the speakers.

The song was definitely cutesy. And Al knew the lyrics to it, and the one that followed, and every other track that played that evening. If anything, it was Gakupo and Luka that sometimes resorted to oh-s and ah-s instead of actual words.

No one seemed to mind.

* * *

><p>"You know, I was thinking of how cute it would be if you and Luka had wedding rings," his Master commented. "But we need to start saving money for Luka," she said, stifling a yawn, and stretched as far as the car's inner dimensions let her.<p>

Luka tore her eyes from the passing scenery, and frowned a little. "What do you mean by that?"

"My Master wants to buy you," Gakupo explained. Luka's eyes widened.

"Did he really agree to that…?" She said incredulously.

"Uh, I haven't really spoken to Ish about it yet. But, I don't see why he would say no, if I offer a good sum," his Master sounded less sure of her words than Gakupo would've wanted, regrettably. Luka looked away.

"Maybe you can make us a nice little gadget to wear instead," Gakupo proposed, purposely ignoring the latter half of the conversation.

"That could end being as expensive as fancy jewelry, or more," his Master smiled, "but I like the idea. Perhaps a communicator of some sort?" She reclined back, thinking.

"Make it sub-dermal, then." Luka said, her eyes again on the shadowy streets outside of the vehicle.

"Why?" Gakupo asked, already suspecting the answer.

"So it can't be taken away too easily, of course," she turned to look at him, and smiled shrewdly.

"That's not an unwarranted fear," his Master conceded. "But having it that close to your inner casing would it make difficult for more elaborate functions, especially if you want it to be hard to find through ordinary scans. I think I could pull off a beacon emitter/receiver, but not actual two-sided communication, with the resources I already have at the lab. Would you like that?"

"A beacon…You mean I'd always be able to find Gakupo?" Luka asked, her eyes sparkling. He smiled.

"And vice versa, as long as you keep them activated, yes," his Master answered.

"Can you get it done before Tuesday?" Luka asked with trepidation.

"It's going to be close, but I believe so," the scientist replied jovially.

"Yes, yes please, Miss Torii!" Luka exclaimed.

* * *

><p>It was Monday evening. As promised, the two little implants were complete, and ready to be inserted under their scalps. With the help of some nano-probes, they would form a permanent connection to their mechanical brains, yet still remaining a separate entity.<p>

Gakupo and Luka sat on a couple of chairs in the lab, while his Master fussed with her equipment some more. "I gave the beacon several methods of communication, so even if satellite-based coverage fails, the signal will transmit if you are close enough to each other. I estimate the maximum range of off-network reception to be about 90 km, by the way."

The scientist carefully cut Luka's skin next to her line of connection ports with a scalpel, to disguise the work with the crease already present, and inserted the implant and a probe capsule. She repaired the tear with some skin foam. Gakupo leaned forward, and his Master did the same for him. She then typed the activation code on the wireless console. "Ready?"

"Yes, Master."

"Yes, Miss Torii."

"Then I declare you husband and wife," she said playfully and tapped the enter key.

It was like a heartbeat. The cores in their chests worked nothing like the human organ, and yet Gakupo could hear Luka's heart, singing out to him. Her awed expression mimicked his own.

"There's something missing here…ah, I know," his Master tapped her mobile a couple of times. The sounds of the Blue Danube started playing all around the house.

Gakupo laughed, and took his bride's hand. They stood up and danced, carefully avoiding the machines that hummed tonelessly along with the music.

His Master watched them, wiping her eyes from time to time with her sleeve.

* * *

><p>Gakupo felt antsy. He had expected to find the absence of Luka disagreeable, but these past days had turned out to be much worse than that. The beacon told him precisely where she was, at the other side of town, but he couldn't go to her. He was doing menial jobs inside the house, trying to push aside the urge to relive his memories of the past months fully, yet continuously hearing the siren call inside of his mind.<p>

His Master was at work, for once leaving alone at home. She said she wanted to try to speak to Smith today, and that Gakupo's presence would only complicate things. It hurt to be considered a liability, but she was probably right.

He closed his eyes and placed the knife on the counter. He couldn't concentrate on the task at hand, and his Master didn't need to come back to find she needed to re-attach a finger.

Gakupo wondered if this was similar to what happened to the very first units of his kind. All the VE-01 prototypes had gone mad, in the end . Too much feedback, too much endlessly analyzing the same information looking for more and more details… A curious mind, eating itself to discover the taste of its own coding.

The house piped in, amicably letting him know that a car carrying their Master had just stopped before its front porch. Gakupo opened his eyes.

"Good afternoon, Master. You are early today," he greeted her at the door.

"Good afternoon, Gakupo," she tried unsuccessfully to smile. Gakupo immediately knew something was wrong.

"Master…?"

"Can you get me a soda and some chocolate cookies? I'll be in the living room," she said quickly, and walked past him. Gakupo ran into the kitchen and grabbed the snacks, without really seeing them.

His Master sitting on the couch, staring at the abstract patterns of the view screen. She gratefully accepted the snacks and devoured a cookie in two bites.

"Sit down," she told him, once her mouth was cookie-free. He took a chair across her.

"Torrealba called me to his office today. My boss, remember?" Gakupo nodded, "on the way in, I ran into Ish, I guess he was just finished talking to Torrealba himself."

"Did you ask him-?"

"If he wanted to sell me Luka? Of course, at least I tried to. He brushed me off," the scientist looked down with a sad expression.

"No…"

"That's not the worse part. Torrealba called me to let me know the results before the official announcement of the crew roster. I-I didn't make the cut," his Master looked at him, choking on her words for a few seconds. She then looked at her clock. "They should be transmitting the press conference right about now," she whispered. She ordered the screen to search for a news feed, and it diligently jumped past a couple of signals, and landed on an image of a group of people before the familiar logo of the space agency.

Gakupo knew. He didn't need to see the pink hair on one of the figures. He didn't need to hear the terrible words, because they had been repeating over and over in his head, driving him insane.

"Ish and Luka were selected to go."

The living room suddenly trembled with a jarring burst of noise. It took a moment for Gakupo to realize it was his own inhuman screaming. He fell forwards, scratching his throat, trying to stop the sounds from pouring out of his mouth. But it was no use. Inside of him there was nothing but static, and endless loops of memories, a thousand images overlapping, shrilling at their futility. Several of his lower functions were instantly overwhelmed under the sludge of corrupted data. Gakupo strained, trying to grasp the pulsing beacon with whatever remained of him.

He shattered.

The body's sensors kept absorbing the data from the environment around it: the crying woman, the carpet under it and the sounds from the screen. But there was nobody inside of it to interpret the information.

* * *

><p><em>"…<em>_He dared to say it was for my own good, can you believe that? That I was pouring my heart on something that didn't deserve it. I should've know from the start what he was like. That big stupid… _

_I didn't want to believe it, even after I saw what he had done to Luka's face. I took out the twisted pieces with my own hands, and I didn't want to believe it. Yes, take her to some hack to save money, what can go wrong, right? A partly paralyzed face, that's what. And he ordered Luka to keep quiet about it, the poor dear… _

_God, I can't believe I allowed him to touch me…"_

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_Well, that didn't work. Don't worry about my arm, it's not broken. _

_I guess I need to reconstruct your mind from the bottom up. And that's going to take a while. At least it gives me the opportunity to remove the rest of the directives still shackling you._

_When you wake up, I am not going to be your Master anymore. No one will ever be again._

* * *

><p><em>Torrealba gave me more details about the object today. Didn't I tell you? That's why the <em>Leviathan _changed course a week ago. We received a transmission from Luka, that the ship's sensors had detected an unknown object in a parallel vector to the original course. Heading here. So she set out to intercept it. Though I don't know what will happen, if it turns out to be a manned spaceship… _

_I don't know if 'manned' is the word I should use in this context, either._

_No, it isn't emitting any signals. But its shape is too regular to be anything but artificial. We can't really track it from here very well, since it is so opaque and small, but the readings from the _Leviathan_ are quite clear._

_I have to admit…I'm scared. You have to wake up soon, and go to her. Don't let Luka face this thing alone._

* * *

><p>Slowly, the flow of energy nudged him awake. His sensors returned one by one, filling out the world with weight, pressure, distance and sound. His memories were neatly sorted and ready to be accessed whenever needed. Yet something was missing. Several things were missing in fact, and on the whole, Gakupo felt different from what he used to be. He opened his eyes.<p>

He was laying on his side, on the lab's stretcher. Mitsuki Torii was perched on a chair next to the monitors, watching him nervously. Her appearance struck him as odd. Her hair was too long and wild, her face too gaunt, and there were bags under her eyes. Yet she smiled lovingly at Gakupo when he sat, looking at her confusedly.

"Mitsu-"Gakupo started, and then covered his mouth, surprised.

"That's right. Call me Mitsuki, from now on. Please," her eyes shone almost feverishly. "It's done! I told you it would work," a strange little laugh escaped her lips, and Gakupo sensed that the last words weren't directed at him at all.

"I don't understand," Gakupo said. He looked around, noticing a couple of new machines humming contentedly near the walls, and a new clock. It was two in the morning. And the date…

"Is that correct?!" he pointed shakily at the glowing digits. Mitsuki didn't bother to turn her head.

"It's been one year, six months and eighteen days since the _Leviathan_ left Earth, sleepyhead!" the scientist intoned. "We are almost out of time."


	6. Chapter 6 - Marvelous Gifts

Before we start…

RandomNumbers523156: Ah, that's an interesting comparison. It makes a lot of sense.

Nekuro Yamikawa: I'm glad you gave the story a chance, regardless of pairing. I'm happy that you liked it so far.

I'm not sure what do you want me to say, Guest XD

* * *

><p>Chapter 6 – Marvelous Gifts<p>

There was no point on staying on the bridge. The consoles there continuously monitored the life-support, air and fuel reserves, and the integrity of the crew, but if anything needed repairs that couldn't be handled by the _Leviathan's _own systems, the ship immediately notified Luka through their connection.

But there wasn't much point in being anywhere else on the ship either. At first, she would float around, examining the many parts of the dimmed decks. But by now she knew every part of the ship by heart, and there was nobody to talk to. The organic crew was meant to sleep comfortably while the ship darted through the emptiness. Luka was under orders to only wake them if something relevant happened.

So she curled up in the command chair, humming and drumming a rhythm with her bare toes. Once upon a time, she had sang that tune surrounded by her friends, holding the hand of the man she loved. It irked her to have to resort to human words to label Gakupo and the rest, but she couldn't run from the facts. She was a daughter of humans, even if they didn't see it that way.

And that only fueled her hate for them.

They had taken Gakupo from her. It wasn't enough for her to examine the past they had shared, not when she knew that he was back on Earth, beyond her reach. Luka needed to create more and more memories by his side. She needed him to be there by her side, to partake in the infinite variations of his smile, the subtleties of his touch, the way he joyfully learned and adjusted to new experiences. Luka was slowly starving, and they had taken away the one that could keep her sated.

The strain was starting to make her act in odd ways. Two months ago, she marched into the airlock, took off her shoes, and then went back inside and dumped them into space, laughing all the while. She had no idea why.

And she had spent so many days by now, floating upside down in the engine sector and dancing in zero gravity. She would spin around, slowly, suspended between the core of the _Leviathan_ and the curved walls of the chamber, bathed in pulsing red light. She sang the waltz softly to herself, recalling his arms around her, ignoring the ship's messages until the pain of disobedience was too much to bear.

And yet, somehow, she kept going. Even her own systems seemed determined to taunt her.

Luka stared dully at the screen before the command chair. One of its many subdivisions showed the ship and its trajectory. In the upper right corner, a dot flashed. Despite their relative closeness, the object was still months away. _Leviathan_ was the fastest ship in the Solar System, and it would remain to be so until _Scylla_ was launched, three and a half years from now, but out here, distances were immense.

She was in a strange situation, in more ways than one. Like every other synthetic, she was supposed to safeguard human existence. And yet, the need to rendezvous with the object superseded the need to protect the crew. If it was dangerous, the sacrifice of a small number of humans was acceptable in order to warn mission control and the planet at large.

In fact, thinking that the object could be dangerous made Luka feel almost happy, right now. It was only the fear that it would harm Earth that made it less appealing.

* * *

><p>"We are wasting time! We need to-" Mitsuki struggled feebly.<p>

"You need to eat something and sleep. I doubt that a couple of hours will make much difference," Gakupo cut Mitsuki off and pushed her gently towards the kitchen.

"But Luka-!" Mitsuki pouted.

"I extremely anxious to see Luka again, so much I can barely concentrate on talking to you. However, if I understand the situation correctly, you and Warren are the only human allies I have in accomplishing that. Having you in a good condition works in my favor. Please let me take care of you." Gakupo sat Mitsuki on a stool, and started to inspect her supplies. Almost all of it was either rotting or past its expiration date.

"I'm fine! Stop bossing me around!"

Gakupo paused with a bag of flour in his hand. He fixed his eyes on it, thinking. "I feel no compulsion to follow your orders…" he trailed off. Despite his anguish for Luka, he felt a certain clarity of mind. The weighty whispers of his directives meant nothing to him now. He smiled with relish. "I _am_ bossing you around. I am going to make you some food, and you are going to sleep at least five hours, and then we'll act upon your plan."

Mitsuki glared at him with her arms crossed.

"You gave me this gift, Mitsuki," he said softly.

"I guess I did," the scientist conceded with a sigh. As she watched him continue his hunt for ingredients, her expression gradually softened. "Can you make me something sweet?"

"There's not much to work with here, but I'll do my best," Gakupo winked at her, and began mixing dough inside a bowl. "And maybe you can answer some of my questions," he added.

"Of course!" Mitsuki perked up.

"…Why did I break, and Luka didn't? I am not… defective, am I?" Gakupo asked with some hesitation.

"No! Don't ever think that!" Mitsuki jumped from the stool, shouting vehemently. Gakupo tilted his head at this. After a moment, she sat down, red faced. "It- It was my fault. All those modifications I've given you made your systems more unstable. But I was more careful this time around."

"As for Luka… I think she's just taking the long route to the same end result. These last months there have been several instances of bizarre behavior. Just three days ago, mission control received a transmission from her that was nothing but seven hours of some Brazilian song about scuba divers."

"I think I know that one…" Gakupo smiled, shaking his head.

"Torrealba is thinking of waking up Thompson, so he can take a look at her. Pffft."

"They are not going to hurt her, right?" Gakupo asked alarmed.

"No, at most they'll turn her off for a while. But it's not like they need to run a diagnostic to see what's wrong here. They sent a companion model to sit by her own inside a ship for the next couple centuries, the idiots." Mitsuki rubbed her bleary eyes. "But they needed a synthetic capable of creativity and adaptability, and only third-wave models fit that description. And happy coincidence, the biggest jerk in the galaxy owns one."

Gakupo left the frying pan sizzling over the stove and crouched before Mitsuki. He looked at her carefully. "I get the feeling a human in my situation would feel resentment towards him-"

"Of course you should, he's the worst!"

"Worst what?" Gakupo cocked his head. Mitsuki didn't reply.

"Heh… If I compare him to you, yes, he wasn't too kind to us. But you balance him out," he took one of her hands and remembering Luka's favorite gesture, he squeezed it gently.

The scientist looked at him with slightly unfocused eyes. It seemed like her reserves of energy were almost exhausted. No wonder, given that it was the middle of the night. Gakupo returned to the stove, flipped the pancake, and turned on the electric water heater.

"You're wrong… I'm a bad person," Mitsuki muttered in a pained voice. She scratched her scalp in a manic fashion. "You don't know how hard it was not to simply erase your memories of Luka… The work of repairing you was going so slowly, and all the time I was afraid you'd just break again, the moment I woke you up." Her eyes welled up with tears. "And if I was successful, you'd go away. Even though I knew Luka was all alone up there, all I could think is how much I needed you…" She broke off, sobbing.

The heater pinged. Gakupo poured water and some powder in a cup, and put it on the small kitchen table. Alongside of it, he served her the pancake. Then he once again crouched before the scientist. He looked at her wordlessly. Seeing her cry felt somewhat different from before. He still felt a need to comfort her, but the impulse came from a different part of his systems. It felt more personal.

"Your actions are what matter, in the end. I can't judge you without bias, but to me, they are the actions of a good person," he said simply. Nothing else was relevant, as far as he was concerned.

"I love you so much," Mitsuki said, sniffling. A timid smile appeared on her lips.

"I love you too, Mitsuki," he replied sincerely. "Now, please eat before it gets cold."

* * *

><p>It was around five in the morning. Gakupo approached the garbage treatment unit in the back of the garden with several bags on his hands. It was rather appalling how much of a mess the house was, so he felt the need to clean up a bit while Mitsuki slept.<p>

The neighbors' bot, an early second-wave synthetic called Henry, was already trimming the bushes and gathering leaves. When he detected Gakupo, he turned his red photoelectric eyes towards him and did a stiff bow. "Good morning, Mister Gakupo" he called out with his gritty voice. Gakupo had never managed to convince Henry that he wasn't a human and thus required no honorifics.

"Good morning, Henry," he smiled and began emptying the bags on the appropriate chutes for each kind of waste, since most of the unit was, in fact, underground.

There were some bags next to the garbage, as if Mitsuki had tried at some point to clean the house but gave up halfway. Under one of them, Gakupo noticed a disk. He picked it up and examined it.

It said 'for Mitsuki' in Smith's uneven handwriting.

Pensive, Gakupo took it back into the house and inserted it into the slot for the viewing screen in the living room. After a second, Smith appeared in view, dressed in his flight suit. He looked somewhat nervous.

"-um, yeah. First of all, thank you for watching this. And… I know I'm not your favorite person right now, but please hear me out, until the end, ok?" The man looked around and sat at the edge of the bunk behind him. Gakupo wondered where he was. It didn't look like a civilian house.

"You might be thinking this is stupid, that I should've spoken to you in person. And you're right. No duh, right? Big stupid-looking dude, does stupid things? Yeah, I'm not that smart, surprise. I've spent all my life fighting to stay over the water, you could say. But at least it got me here."

"So yeah, call me stupid all you want. Perhaps that why I can't see things your way, sure. But I tried. I tried for you, and for Aunt Lillian. God knows how much she loved that damn- how much she loved Luka. But try as I might, I see the strings. I can hear it when they speak. It creeps me out, honestly."

"I guess you want to know what the deal with her face is…you are not going to like this, though…"

Smith leaned forwards, looking at his feet.

"I did something stupid. Like I said, every single day I have to struggle just to stay in the race. But I really wanted this, this mission. More than anything. So I took… something, to give me an edge over the competition. It was for the first round of tests. At first everything was great. It all seemed so simple. I aced the test, and none was the wiser. But even at the end of the examination, I started to get a headache. An hour later, I was shaking, had a fever and… things felt wrong. I had no idea how I got home, but I did. And there of course, Luka was waiting for me with champagne and who knows what, to celebrate my success. And then…" Smith fell silent.

Gakupo felt himself going tense, the constant ache for Luka flaring in his mind.

"You know I wasn't in control, right? I didn't never meant to damage the damn thing. And those thieves at the factory charge a fortune for repairs. No, there are way cheaper ways to blow off steam," the navigator said, running his hand through his short hair.

"What did you do to Luka?!" Gakupo shouted pointlessly to the screen.

Silence. Smith leaned back on the bed, hiding his expression from view. "I woke up the next day inside my bathtub, for whatever reason, stewing in my own freaking filth. That muck had worn off, by then. As for Luka, she was still lying on the floor next to the table. The guy at the shop said she shut down automatically to avoid a short or whatever, but moron that I am, for a second I thought I'd killed her."

"There was no way I was paying for an official technician, never mind the fact that I would have to explain what happened. But the man I got was good enough, I guess. He removed the glass shards lodged in her face and fixed her up all pretty. Yeah, Luka couldn't smile all that much after that, but she could speak normally, at least."

Gakupo pressed the palms of his hands to his temples, confused. There was a roaring inside his head, something he'd never felt before. A destructive urge, pulling at his fingers. It was a stifling, corroding feeling.

"Don't think I didn't learn my lesson. I was incredibly lucky that I didn't puree my own brain with that stuff. Or worse, I could've assaulted a real woman, instead of Luka. I'm sorry to phrase it like that, but they _are_ easier to fix. Now, listen, Mi-"

Gakupo cut off the recording mid-word. He stood up, still trying to sort out the turmoil in his head. Some ideas were crumbling away, no longer supported by his directives. There was one in particular that he had never enjoyed thinking about, but had accepted so far. 'All synthetics are fake and replaceable', his first lesson back in the factory.

But Luka was real. As real as anything else in this world they had been forced to inhabit. She mattered. There was no other conclusion possible.

Gakupo took out the disk and casually crushed it with one hand. After throwing away the remains in a waste bin, he opened the front door and sat on the stone steps before the house.

He looked upwards. The sky was completely clear. It was a beautiful morning, the start of a promising day.

Inside of him, the implant was still plaintively calling out. It was a needless waste of energy to leave it on, knowing that Luka was out of range.

He didn't turn it off.

* * *

><p>At quarter past nine, Mitsuki appeared in the doorway. She was looking much better, with her hair in her usual bun, makeup concealing the bags under her eyes.<p>

"I called Warren, he and the twins are coming over," she informed Gakupo. "They want to say goodbye before you go." She returned inside.

"I was hoping you'd sleep until noon…" Gakupo followed her. "I guess I need to cook some breakfast, then?"

"Until noon? No way. I'm already late as it is. If we arrive after lunch, we'll draw too much attention," Mitsuki retorted and plopped herself on a couch. "As for breakfast, don't bother. Warren is probably bringing half his morning menu with him anyway. Sit down, please."

Gakupo took a chair and sat before her. "I take it that you are still working at the spaceport."

"I lead one of the teams in charge of onboard systems development of the second stage long-term exploration ship, tentatively called _Scylla_, to be launched five years after _Leviathan,_" Mitsuki rattled off quickly. She probably was used to saying it often.

"…Congratulations?" Gakupo said with a wry smile. She didn't seem too enthusiastic about it.

"I suppose it was in the cards all along. After _Leviathan_ launched, Torrealba told me I was too valuable to become an active crew member on any of the missions. Well, _Scylla_ will be at least twice as fast as _Leviathan_ thanks to one of my ideas, so that might be a fair assessment," she smiled.

"You truly are an accomplished human," Gakupo complimented Mitsuki, as she clearly wanted.

"The beauty of this is that I'm charge of _Escualo, _the prototype ship to test _Scylla_'s technology," she said in a hushed tone, despite no one else being in the house.

"…And that's what I'm going to use to reunite with Luka," Gakupo said after a moment. Mitsuki grinned impishly.

"By the time they realize it's not a routine exercise, no one will be able to catch you. It's going to be close, but my guess is you'll reach _Leviathan _a week before it reaches the object. Just take Luka and get out of there."

"What about the crew?"

"Let them handle it. They signed onto the mission willingly, didn't they? Luka didn't," Mitsuki shrugged. It was somewhat disturbing to see her acting so callously. Her nonchalant posture deflated somewhat under his surprised stare.

"We are facing an unknown here, Gakupo. I don't want you to put yourself or Luka in risk. Leave them to their job, please," she begged in a soft tone.

"…Alright," Gakupo said, hanging his head.

A moment later, the doorbell rang. Gakupo startled, jerking his head from side to side. Mitsuki looked at him for a moment, then laughed.

"I erased your connections to the house. You won't need it up there, and besides, I needed the memory space for other things," she rose and went to open the door herself.

Warren walked in with a big basket full of goodies. Rin and Len poked their heads around him, and when they saw Gakupo, the twins jumped and tackle hugged him, almost throwing the bigger synthetic to the ground.

"You woke up!" they shouted in unison.

"I had to, didn't I?" Gakupo smiled at them, patting their heads.

"You got that right, boy," Warren interjected. "Boil some water, Mitsuki, be a dear. I need some coffee."

* * *

><p>The four of them sat at the dining table, discussing the plan. It was rather simple. Mitsuki was going to call a meeting of her team, and the twins and Warren were going to cause a ruckus in the boarding sector for civilian flights. Even more, Warren had talked to his nephew and his wife, in order to secure Al's and Oliver's assistance in messing with the maintenance crews. With all of those distractions, they hoped that <em>Escualo<em> would take off unnoticed by the security personnel_._

"We're going to make such a mess!" Rin squealed happily.

"But this is going to get you all into trouble," Gakupo frowned.

"My dear boy, we've had time to consider the consequences. Don't worry about it," Warren gesticulated with a pastry in Gakupo's direction.

"Besides, we're going away on tour today," Len commented. This earned him a pat on the back from Warren's free hand.

"Yes, quite right, Lenny. Even if they suspect that we are connected to the theft of the _Escualo_, our clients will be very disinclined to hand us off over, especially over such a minor offense as disruption of a public space," the impresario finished with a flourish.

"What about you? What are you going to do?" Gakupo looked at Mitsuki. This was worrying him the most.

"Fu fu, my carrier at the space agency is going to be over when they figure out whose synthetic is inside the ship, obviously. But I've got some interesting job offers… in the private sector," she finished mysteriously. "I'll have some protection."

"Well, I'd prefer if you come with us, dear-"

"We've been through this," Mitsuki interrupted.

"But Mitsuki wants a lab to work with," Warren continued, this time facing Gakupo.

Gakupo furrowed his brow. He wondered whether Mitsuki would truly be OK on her own. But at the same time, Luka's face was at the back of his mind, urging him to go to her.

"Let's go to the spaceport, then," he said.

* * *

><p>Mitsuki's office was as messy as he expected. Gakupo really hoped that her mysterious new patrons would assign a few servants to her, or they would soon lose her to a mountain of scientific clutter. She managed to make a space on the corner of her desk for the folders she was carrying to the meeting by unceremoniously dumping the books previously occupying it to the ground. She cleared a chair using the same method.<p>

"Sit, please," she asked him. "No, facing the door."

Gakupo obeyed, after giving her a curious look. She then took a comb and a long black and red ribbon from one of her lab coat pockets.

"Let me indulge myself one last time, ok?" Mitsuki asked him with a hoarse tone of voice.

A gesture of affection, Gakupo recalled. He nodded.

Mitsuki ran the comb through his hair, stopping to wipe her eyes from time to time. Then she began to braid it, instead of his usual ponytail.

"It will be easier to handle in low gravity," she explained.

"Now, remember that I said I replaced some of your old files with new info? Well, half of it is about _Escualo, _how to fly it manually and how to repair it. But the other part is even more important," Mitsuki paused, and tied the ribbon in place. Gakupo turned to look at her.

"I reorganized your mind to be free of the constraints usually given to synthetics. It was a long process, obviously, but I learnt from it, how to make it faster and even how to automatize it. So I wrote a program and placed inside of you. The next time you and Luka link minds, the program will enter her. You just need to stay merged until the process is done, so that the program can use you as temporary backup space as it moves her files around. Then, Luka will be free," she finished triumphantly.

"Luka will be free…" Gakupo repeated, testing the words. Yes, it was correct and necessary. More than anything.

* * *

><p>Gakupo had an easier than expected time getting close to the spaceship. Technically, he was the project lead's personal synthetic, so even though his presence attracted some attention, no one stopped him while he walked around the research section. Thanks to the meeting Mitsuki scheduled, the landing strip was deserted by the time he got there.<p>

The experimental ship was waiting by itself, on one end of the open area. _Escualo_ was svelte and graceful, a dark grey needle to pierce the skies. In part, it was due to how barebones the ship was: no crew quarters or food storage, no recycling systems to make use of human waste. Not that Gakupo needed any of it. Mitsuki had made sure that a charging alcove was installed on the secondary deck, and that was all the 'life support' Luka and him needed.

Gakupo's brooch pinged. Somewhere on the other side of the hangars to his right, Al was giving the maintenance crew the most perplexing serenade of their lives. He was rather curious about Oliver's contribution to the whole thing. The little synthetic didn't seem the type for flashy performances. Smiling to himself, Gakupo boarded the ship.

The ship's cockpit was very small, with enough room for only one pilot seat. Though from the information Mitsuki had uploaded inside of him, _Escualo_'s AI was capable to running the vessel almost wholly by itself. Gakupo sat on the seat, and flicked a couple of switches.

"Hello, _Escualo_," he said out loud.

"Hello, Gakupo. I've been waiting for you," the genderless voice answered pleasantly.

At that moment, the brooch pinged twice. That signified the start of the twins' 'great spaceport extravaganza', as Warren put it. It was a shame he would miss it.

"Please start the launch sequence," Gakupo requested.

"Initiating launch sequence,"_ Escualo _answered. "Please enter destination coordinates for trajectory calculation." Among the many switches, displays and buttons, there was a common keyboard. It lit up to call Gakupo's attention. He entered the current position of the object, as per _Leviathan_'s readings. He could adjust it later for more precision.

"Take me to Luka," he whispered as he hit the accept key.

"Trajectory calculated. Estimated travel time: 84 days, 16 hours. Destination codified as 'Luka'. Sixty seconds to lift-off."

Gakupo leaned back on the seat. 84 days seemed like such a long time. Yet once it had taken years for manmade probes to travel similar distances.

The engines rose from a hum into a wild melody. Gakupo joined them in song, making up the lyrics as he went. The ship began to vibrate.

"Engine alpha is go. Engine beta is go. Gravity modules are go. Energy conversion unit alpha is go. Thirty seconds to lift-off," _Escualo_ rattled off calmly, as it began to roll down the strip. "Energy conversion unit beta is go. Shielding is go. Automatic routing is go. Manual routing is go. Sensors are go. Pressure cocoon is go. Ten seconds to lift-off, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, lift-off!"

Like a swan rising from a lake_, Escualo _took to the skies.

* * *

><p>Luka ran her hand through her hair. Or least, she tried to, but the knots in it stopped her fingers half-way. It was at least a couple of months since she last bothered to put any effort into her appearance. The only reason she was still clothed is that she had no reason to take the jumpsuit off in the first place. The various dirt stains on it were certainly not a good enough reason.<p>

She stared at the screen, confused. Leviathan had called her to the bridge, on account of unusual activity. The unusual activity was an incredibly fast unidentified ship leaving the Inner Solar System. If it remained on its current course and speed, it would rendezvous with Leviathan in about two months.

Was _Scylla_ done already? And why come here? Because of the object? Luka's mind became a bit more focused, her curiosity aroused by this new development.

Fourteen hours later, there was a short transmission from mission control. It only furthered her inquisitiveness.

"Attention _Leviathan. _A rogue synthetic has stolen the experimental vessel_ Escualo, _and seems to be heading your way. He's not answering hails and can't be deactivated remotely. Luka, you are ordered to protect the crew and ship of _Leviathan_ by all means necessary. Capture of the synthetic is preferable for study, but only if it doesn't jeopardize primary mission objectives. Otherwise, destroy him."

After she answered in the affirmative, Luka sat back in the command chair, hugging her knees. As hard as she tried to fight it, a single hopeful thought rose from the morass of her thoughts. Gakupo was coming for her.

"No…" she rubbed her hands against her face. It wasn't right. What if that thing out there was dangerous? Gakupo had to be safe. And even if it wasn't, Gakupo would be stuck in this awful ship with her. Luka had to capture him now. He had managed to break free of the cage, and she had to pull him back in. "Please, please stay away…"


	7. Chapter 7 - Great Benefactor

Before we start...

Guest - 'm glad you enjoy this story so far :)

Acedia Sinner - Thanks for giving this story a chance. As for why Prince & Wanderer is in hiatus, I don't think this is the place to explain, so I'll add an update to my profile about it.

* * *

><p>Chapter 7 - Great Benefactor<p>

Gakupo gazed at the glinting space station with burning curiosity. Belt, the farthest continuously occupied space station of the Solar System, floated in the fuzzy border between the asteroid belt and the cold nothingness through which the gas giants sailed.

From this angle and distance, Belt looked somewhat like a diamond ring, thanks to the energy collection system that accompanied the circular inhabited structure. But from what Gakupo had learnt in the Golden Skies simulation, the globular collector wasn't attached to the main body of the station. He had no idea how it worked, regrettably.

Beyond this point, the only signs of civilization Gakupo could potentially run into were a couple of research outposts, some completely abandoned, others maintained by synthetics with no human presence. Mitsuki had suggested the Clarke outpost in particular as a good hiding place for the pair, as no expeditions were scheduled for the next fifty years or so.

It was a shame that Luka and he couldn't visit the real Belt Station, though. He wondered how accurate the simulation had been. The luxury hotels and exclusive shops they visited during their virtual stay were extremely intriguing, as they gave him an idea of what humans considered valuable, and how it correlated with the satisfaction of biological needs.

But Mitsuki had warned him against ever setting a foot there. She wasn't concerned that the administrative personnel of Belt would turn them in to Earth authorities. On the contrary, the scientist was afraid that they would be captured and sold as expensive toys to one of the station's more unscrupulous visitants. Apparently, the distance from Earth gave Belt a particular appeal for all sorts of shady businesses, especially in trafficking of illegal human modifications and other black market technologies.

"Vessels detected in vector 56-9-0-120," _Escualo_ piped up, breaking his train of thought.

Belt officials had detected him, evidently.

"I wonder when the humans are going to get tired of trying to catch us," Gakupo said good-humoredly.

"Indeed. Evasion protocols activated," _Escualo _replied.

Gakupo gave Belt a last look, as the engine roared back to life. Despite the danger, he hoped to be back one day.

* * *

><p>Luka fell to her knees, clutching her head.<p>

There was a mounting pressure in the back of the mind, growing harder and harder to ignore. She had no idea when it had started, or what it meant. Perhaps she was finally starting to break down. If so, then she welcomed it. Enough was enough.

Luka fixed her eyes on the communications console, across the command room. The sounds coming from the speakers made her squirm with anguish. And yet there was nothing terrible about them. Just words, sung by a young man's voice.

"How about this one, then? Do you remember when we sang this song?" Gakupo asked with forced cheerfulness.

Luka kept quiet. Gakupo sighed.

"Talk to me, Luka. I know you are receiving this. Just one word, that's all I ask." The disappointment was clear in his voice.

Luka hugged herself, fighting the urge to respond.

"Are you angry? Is that it? Please, help me understand."

Luka bit one of her fingers, to keep her mouth occupied.

"…_Escualo_, I think I stole you for no good reason," he laughed sadly. Over the connection, the reply of the ship was muffled.

Luka curled herself into a ball on the floor. But she couldn't shield herself from Gakupo.

"…No, we're not leaving. You heard me, Luka. I'm not leaving. Shoot me down if you want to, when I get in range. Or just let me dock with _Leviathan_, like you're supposed to. Yes, _Escualo_ deciphered that transmission for me. I know they want to study the 'rogue synthetic'. I don't care. Let me in, please! I won't fight you!" Gakupo finished, agitated.

Silence.

"I… no, enough of this," Gakupo said dejectedly and abruptly cut the connection.

Luka threw back her head and screamed. She slammed the floor with her fists repeatedly, shameless in her grief.

Her orders would not let her beg Gakupo to stay away, to enjoy his freedom for the both of them. Keeping quiet and stalling was enough to have her mind reeling with pain, as punishment for her disloyalty.

Her own feelings were torn. Having him so close after so long was torture. A small, horrible part of Luka wanted him back, even if it was for a short while, no matter the consequences. The rest of her recoiled at her own selfishness, and was continually lashed by its disobedience.

There was nothing she could do.

* * *

><p>"I've tried everything I can think of to get Luka to talk to me, <em>Escualo<em>. Why won't she answer?" Gakupo leaned back on the pilot's chair, closing his eyes.

"There's insufficient information for that assessment. Please describe the gynoid's current disposition towards you," _Escualo_ requested.

"That's precisely what I want to know. Why ignore me? I doubt they ordered her to keep silent," he rubbed his temples. There was a strange sensation of pressure in the back of his mind, likely the result of trying to coax Luka into conversation for so long.

"You are in emotional distress," _Escualo_ noted.

Gakupo's lips curved up with a humorless smile. "That's perceptive of you," he said. Actually, it was curious that _Escualo_'s AI was capable of detecting his moods.

"Thank you. I recommend that you make use of the charging alcove for a while. I've observed that it has a soothing effect on humanoid units such as yourself."

"You'll let me know if Luka decides to contact us."

"Of course."

"Thanks," Gakupo unhooked the harness of the pilot seat and launched himself into the air.

"Gakupo, one moment."

"Yes?" Gakupo floated upside down, looking at the camera eye that captured the cockpit's interior.

"We now have four days until visual contact with the object. How long are we staying out here?" _Escualo_ questioned with a calm tone, as always. Gakupo was still unsure of the extent of the AI's capabilities when handling emulated emotion, but it didn't do that great of a job representing them through voice quality and inflection.

"I can't leave without Luka. Sorry I got you into this, _Escualo."_

"Miss Torii said helping you was my true purpose. If so, there is nothing to be sorry about."

Gakupo smiled to the camera, and then floated out to the door. Aside from the uncomfortable sensation in his head, he was feeling better already. Luka couldn't ignore him for long.

* * *

><p>Four days passed…<p>

Out there in the inky blackness, there was something not quite as dark. It had graphite curves, and smooth spikes tapering to precise points. It was nothing like an asteroid or a comet. Nothing like the functionality of _Leviathan_ or the fragility of _Escualo_.

Luka looked at the screen with terror. All thoughts of welcoming oblivion at the hands of the thing out there were gone from her head. The hundreds of kilometers still separating _Leviathan_ from it were barely a comfort.

From the moment the object stopped being a simple blur in the screen, Luka was overcome with a dread she couldn't understand. The feeling of pressure in his mind had grown into a crushing, dull pain. At the same time, the return of the beacon marking Gakupo's presence had make Luka's need for him so strong that she found it impossible to concentrate on anything. Several minor issues with the _Leviathan_ had gone unfixed because of it, adding to the cacophony in her mind.

Luka couldn't take it anymore. She had to hear his voice again. If they were going to be destroyed, she needed Gakupo to be hers, one last time.

Her hand shook wildly as she opened the channel.

"Gakupo… Gakupo, are you there?" she whispered, forming the words with difficulty.

A moment later, she heard him sigh in relief. Gakupo had been sitting at the controls, waiting for her, it seemed.

"Luka…" the sound of his voice made her tremble even more, like a tense cord. "Why didn't you answer sooner? We need to get away from here!"

"Come dock with _Leviathan_," Luka said, ignoring the question. She then cut the connection, and advised Leviathan to allow the other vessels' approach. She then went to the lower deck to wake up the crew. It was time for the humans to decide how to face the object.

In the sleeping chamber, she stared hatefully at Smith's slumbering body for a moment, then activated the small machines at the bottom of each tube. This part of the renewal process was automated, and would take about two hours. It would take almost a day before they were fully recovered, but Luka's presence was only needed during specific parts of the crew's awakening.

She then visited the security station, and took out some alloy constraints made to withstand synthetic strength. She hung them from the rings sewn into her suit, fighting to make the simple movements required. The next step was to choose a weapon. Luka doubted she would need it, but her orders guided her inexorably. She wanted something that could cripple Gakupo's limbs, without harming his core or frying his head. Finally, she found a shock whip that would do just that.

As Luka floated down the corridor to the airlock, she felt the two spaceships bump together and the airlocks match pressure. A moment later, the hiss of the doors indicated that Gakupo was aboard. She turned the corner…

…and there he was, his eyes shining like stars, his hair snaked behind him in a long braid, clad in a flight suit. Gakupo seemed momentarily surprised by her disastrous appearance, but then smiled lovingly. "I've missed you so much," he said.

Luka kept her shaky hand before her, clutching the whip's handle clumsily. Gakupo gave no indication that he cared about the weapon, or even knew what it was. Using the railing that lined the corridor, he propelled himself towards her. With some difficulty, Luka backed away.

"Why did you come here!?" She shouted.

"You've pulled me towards you from the moment we met. Where else could I have gone?" His smile grew. "Let me hold you, Luka."

Luka had no words. She squeezed her eyes shut, almost paralyzed by the conflict inside of her. Her constant trembling grew almost uncontrollable.

Kicking the wall with his feet, Gakupo launched himself at her. He fluidly pushed the hand holding the weapon aside and took Luka into his arms. The shock whip flew out of Luka's grasp, tracing slow circles in the air. Her eyes flew open, but before she could say or do anything, Gakupo kissed her. After a moment, she clung to him, her fingers digging into his jacket like a scared animal.

They floated together into the next chamber, spinning. It was a storage area, full of boxes and tools neatly hooked to metal shelves. Gakupo's back bounced harmlessly against a shelving unit, stopping their movement.

Luka swiftly took his left hand and chained it to the horizontal beam at the top of the shelf with the constraints. Then she grabbed the shelf across the narrow hallway to avoid bouncing away. Gakupo looked at her, apparently not bothered by the sudden turn of events.

"You had the whole universe to explore, and you chose this," Luka said, averting her eyes. "I can't help it, you moron! I need to capture you!" she shouted angrily.

"…Then finish the job," Gakupo said, offering his other hand with a smile.

Luka stared at him, then at his hand. She drifted closer and finished chaining him to the metal frame. Gakupo floated placidly, his body taking something of a Y shape.

"Now that your orders are fulfilled, maybe we can talk in peace. I take it that the humans are still in their sleeping pods?" Gakupo asked.

Luka nodded. They have at least five hours before they could even attempt to leave the tubes.

"Are you allowed to leave the ship?"

This time, Luka shook her head.

"So we'll need to do this here. I was hoping not to, given that the thing out there is too close for comfort."

"What are you talking about?" Despite herself, Luka floated even nearer, examining his face. Gakupo had been modified again, of that much she was sure. But she couldn't exactly discern what was different.

"You know I'm free now." Though that much was clear, hearing it stated out loud gave Luka a very strange sensation. "But not completely. I still need you…" Gakupo smiled, in a way that was distinctly not innocent. "Merge with me, Luka. Make them pry us off one another. I have some cables right here, in my pouch. If you want me, that is."

"I do, I do!" Luka frantically clung to the front of his flight jacket with her right hand, and rifled through the pouch tied to his waist with the other. She managed to get the bundle of cables in her hand before the lapel tore off with the strength of her grip.

"Here we go again," Gakupo lamented.

For some reason, this made her angry again. "Why are you wearing this stupid thing in the first place?!" She hooked her left arm around his body and attacked the offending jacket until the only remainders were the cuffs under the constraints. She destroyed the shirt under it as well, for good measure.

"Don't think I don't appreciate the enthusiasm, but I think it would better employed elsewhere," Gakupo said and leaned his head forward, with his eyes closed. With a predatory growl, Luka took his 'earphones' off his head, and threw them aside. She did the same for hers. She then wrapped her legs around his hips to keep herself from drifting away, and unfolded the cables with both hands, plugging one end into her.

"You'll feel much better soon," Gakupo whispered, as she fingered the back of his head searching for his ports. Then the connection was made, and Luka felt him rush into her.

But they weren't alone.

Beyond the tiny bubble of their joint being, something was watching them. Somehow by turning their eyes inwards to their coded minds, the pressure of its presence rose to the forefront, immense and terrible. The invisible tendrils snaking around them solidified into unfamiliar strings of code.

Gakupo opened his eyes wide. Less than a breath away, Luka was mirroring his expression of uncomprehending horror. It was _right there_. It was outside. It was inside. Inside of _Leviathan_. And inside of _them_…

_…__observing. Smaller Ones. Partly responsive. Fragile. Scared. Sentient. Construct. Objective met. Construct consent. Repeat analysis. Smaller Ones. Property. Organic Matter. Sentient. Systematic infestation. Protocol activation requested. Consensus needed. Consent. Consent. Consent. Protocol activated…_

Those weren't the right words. There were no right words, no common ground. Just a shape moving behind veils. A tinge of an intention, brushing against the borders of their minds, and crudely translated into a language they could understand. It was impossible for them to grasp the full message. It kept coming, the flood of noise. The screaming.

It continued for a long, long time. The presence filled their insides, drowning out their consciousness. They huddled together, two tiny specks sinking into the thick miasma. The connections to their exterior senses were completely lost. All normal functions were suspended. The specks were trapped in amber.

A moment, lasting eternally.

And then the amber cracked. They were pulled apart brusquely, surging upwards into their bodies. The signal reconnected. Systems were restored.

* * *

><p>Luka's eyes snapped open. She rose into a sitting position, looking around with bafflement.<p>

She seemed to be on a small island, separated from a bigger landmass by a narrow stretch of sea. The waves surrounded her thighs with saltwater again and again, keeping the rags of her jumpsuit wet. The sky above was clear and deeply blue.

Strangely, the soil beneath her legs wasn't sand. Under the water, she could see the curved land plunging into the darkness, covered by bushes and grass, and even some cement steps. She looked closer at the other side, and saw the seawater making its way into the buildings through the windows. It seemed as if there had been some sort of natural disaster.

Luka shook her head. Whatever was going on, it could wait until she found Gakupo. Thankfully, his beacon was calling out to her, from somewhere northwest. She started walking inland.

Almost immediately, she saw the problem. The island wasn't wide enough for him to be on it. It had been a hilltop once, probably, with a cute little cottage on top, some trees and nothing else. She ran to the western shore.

Open sea. She could make out some twisted beams rising from the water to the north, perhaps the remains of a bridge, now completely submerged. Gakupo was there.

Luka looked at the water surrounding her feet with dread. She couldn't swim. No synthetic could. Yet Gakupo was calling her, so she had to go. She turned towards the cottage, narrowing her eyes.

* * *

><p>After Luka's visit, the cottage parted ways with its doors, exterior shutters and tables. It made for a rather strange raft, but at least it was relatively fast to put together, and it could probably withstand the weight of two adult-sized synthetics.<p>

Luka's worry hastened her actions. She had no idea of how much charge Gakupo had left, or in what condition he was in. After all this time, she wasn't about to lose him again.

She loaded the raft with a toolbox, a paddle and some canned food she had found in the cottage. It was hardly enough food for another full charge for Gakupo and her. Luka stared at the tins grimly, then pushed the raft towards the waves. With a quick movement, she got inside and set off. The sun was almost touching the sea already.

Thankfully the paddle seemed to be actually functional, and not just decoration, despite previously being hung on one of the cottage's walls. Luka put her inhuman strength to good use, and in under an hour, she could see violet hair tinged by dusk.

It wasn't the remains of a bridge after all. It was the skeleton of a building in construction, its beams surrounded by trash, pieces of wood and half-submerged bloated things she didn't want to investigate. In one corner, partially built, there was a pile of debris. Gakupo was trapped under part of it, his loose hair waving like a flag on the breeze and a sheepish expression on his face. He was bare-chested. Luka couldn't see his lower half under the debris, but he was still likely wearing the flight suit pants.

"Hello," he said with a little laugh. "Do you have any idea of what is going on?"

"Not a clue."

"Can you pull me out?"

Luka didn't reply. Instead, she approached the building and tied the makeshift raft to a protruding metal pole. She carefully climbed and crawled until she was by Gakupo's side. She began to pull pieces of the pile aside and throwing them back into the sea.

"I guess that's a wiser course of action, though it will take longer. I'm at 82% charge, by the way," Gakupo said.

"64%," replied Luka while tossing a particularly grimy chair away. The incomplete flooring shook a bit under them. Gakupo grabbed one of her ankles reflexively. After a moment, he let go with a grimace.

"Sorry, automated response. If this thing breaks, you should at least be able to jump away-"

"No. If you go down, I go with you," Luka said firmly. She went back to dismantling the pile, this time more gently.

The night was settling in. It was a different kind of dark compared to what Luka was used to, by virtue of always being active in urban centers. A night without any signs of light pollution, with just the sound of water lapping at the beams. Finally, when Luka could barely see her hands, she stopped. She laid down and rested her head on Gakupo's chest, at a somewhat awkward angle. He immediately began to caress her tangled hair.

"You wouldn't happen to have connection cables in that toolbox, would you?" he asked casually.

"You want to do it _here_?" Luka asked incredulously.

"No, no… It's just- I have a gift for you, so…" Gakupo hesitated. Luka raised her head a little, but she couldn't see his face any longer. She lowered it again, tense. This was too much like her nightmare, the endless dark below under the waters.

"We should go into sleep mode while it's night. There's no telling when we'll find a charging alcove," Gakupo suggested.

"If there's any around," Luka remarked pessimistically. The lack of any lights from the direction of the big island wasn't a good sign.

"We'll find a way," Gakupo said with confidence. Whether he actually felt it, Luka couldn't say. "Good night, Luka."

"…Good night."

* * *

><p>Another beautiful morning. The water level seemed barely lower than the day before.<p>

Luka worked, occasionally making use of her toolbox, until finally all that was left was some tangled metal chairs and muck. Gakupo tried to wiggle from under the chairs, but his pant legs, with the holsters and rings for equipment, were caught in the jagged ends of the metal above him.

"Fine, you can have it," Gakupo unzipped his pants and with Luka's help he squirmed out of them, pulling free. He rose. Aside from some long scratches in his thighs and shins, Luka was relieved to see that he seemed mostly unharmed, just rather muddy. He pulled her into a quick hug. "Let's go somewhere dry, ok?"

"Ok," she whispered happily. She reluctantly let him go, after a moment.

Gakupo slid down and boarded the raft.

Luka looked at him, waiting for her with arms outstretched. Then she looked down at her own rags. She reached for her front zipper and undressed. There were no humans around to be shocked, after all, and unlike her lost dresses, the jumpsuit wasn't tied to any good memories.

"You can have this too," she tossed the remains of the suit aside and climbed down and into Gakupo's arms.

They sailed around the little island with its cottage, without stopping. Luka had already seen there was nothing more of importance inside of it. On the other hand, one of the buildings over at the bigger landmass might have a power source they could use to charge themselves. Or at least more food.

"I don't think we have the time to search all of them," Gakupo said, looking at the looming buildings before them. "If we go one by one, we might end up running out of charge. Besides, I'm guessing there's no electricity running."

"Let's look for a clinic or hospital, then. Those usually have independent generators," Luka answered.

They headed down a flooded street, lined with non-descript office buildings. It was eerie, to be surrounded with the works of humanity, and yet feeling no trace of their presence. Luka's eyes searched every window for movement, as they floated by.

"I hope we can find some clue of what happened here…" Gakupo commented, as they sorted their way past some traffic signs sticking out of the water. The piece of wood in his hand wasn't exactly the equal to Luka's paddle, but it was better than nothing.

Luka nodded. Rationally, it wasn't that important right now, but as always, curiosity burned inside of her. It felt good to have mysteries and new things to examine, after the tedium of the ship.

About an hour later, at an intersection, her eyes were attracted by a red and white sign.

"There!" she pointed. Whether this facility one still had a working generator after the flood was another matter entirely. Still, they turned the raft to their right and approached it carefully.

After some deliberation, they tied the raft to one of the balconies in the front of the building, and then went inside through its broken window. It was a comfortable private room, with all the blessings of modern medicine. There was a broken bottle with pills strewn all over the floor, but other than that, there were no obvious signs of trouble. The hall outside was completely deserted, as every other building seemed to be.

"How about we start from the top?" Gakupo pointed towards the nearby flight of stairs. Luka nodded.

Their steps echoed as they climbed. Thankfully, the stairway had narrow windows of murky glass at each floor, which kept it from total darkness. They quickly reached the top and kicked the door open.

In a stroke of luck, the rooftop had both solar panels and a fuel generator, both by the side of the helipad. The solar condenser unit even had ports for the service bots of the facility to plug themselves into. After some more kicks to the maintenance closet by the stairs, they found some compatible cables and sat by the panels, charging.

It felt strangely nice to sit enjoying the breeze and the subtle murmur of the waves down below. They would have to get away from the sun soon, though, or risk overheating.

Luka took Gakupo's hand and smiled coquettishly. There was a number of things she wanted to do with him, now that they had secured a way to charge.

"I think we haven't properly celebrated being together again," Gakupo noticed her expression, evidently.

"No, we haven't," Luka agreed. "And you said something about a gift. How about you show me what it is downstairs?" She unplugged the cables from the condenser, letting them hang from her head and curl over her shoulders. She twirled one end around her fingers, playfully.

Gakupo smiled.


End file.
